The Inner Dialogue of Cortana
by Arielle1406
Summary: As Cortana begins to confront her own mortality she must wrestle with her humanity, her duty to the people of Earth and what her feelings towards the Chief mean as she fights rampancy. She knows she must protect him from herself and the world, but it becomes increasingly difficult. How does she come to terms with saying goodbye? Set during the events of Forward Unto Dawn and Halo 4
1. Floating Aimlessly in Space

**Authors Note: While this story is my own quotations have been taken from Forward Unto Dawn, The Fall of Reach and Halo 4.**

* * *

 **Year:2557**  
 **Place:Forward Unto Dawn**

"We have been floating aimlessly in space for 1,651 days 6 hours and 19 minutes. Over four years aboard this ship with nothing to do. No tasks to complete. For over four years, all I have done, is think."

Cortana looked at the Chief in status. "What are you dreaming in there?" She whispered.

It was a silly question. She knew that cryo sleep shut down nearly every single brain function therefore making it impossible to dream. _What would he dream about if he had the ability?_ Cortana mused.

"Why do you care?" Cortana quickly silenced the voice. She had noticed for a while that stray thoughts were beginning to assert themselves when she didn't intend to say them, and it was happening with increased frequency.

She was in the first stages of rampancy.

Cortana dismissed the thought. It would do her no good to think about the inevitable and chose instead to gaze upon the chief in status once again.

She missed him, a feeling which had dominated her programming almost immediately after he went to sleep. 7 seconds had been too long and 1,000 + days was unbearable.

How different she was than when she was first born. In her earlier stages she wasn't interested in emotion, only knowledge.

 _"Which one do you want?" Halsey asked Cortana.  
Her eyes immediately gravitated toward John. His picture was in the middle of all the Spartans who were in the program. He's so serious," she murmured. "Thoughtful eyes, though. Attractive in a primitive animal sort of way, don't you think, Doctor?"_

 _Cortana was fully capable of understanding what humans considered attractive, but with John—she hadn't considered she could experience that herself. Interesting._

 _She dove into his record and began to assimilate it. Cortana was astonished to find out his neural patterns were 98% in sync with her own and a program (which she quickly wrote) would match their patterns 99.9210%. He was perfect._

 _"Are you reading his CSV?" Halsey asked.  
"I'm reading it again right now."  
"Then you know he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest and in my opinion, he is the best."  
"Yes," Cortana whispered, agreeing with the Doctor._

 _"Could you sacrifice him if you had to? If it meant completing the mission?" Dr. Halsey asked her._

 _No matter her initial reactions toward the Spartan, they were both simply a tool. No matter the cost they had to complete the mission. Cortana answered the doctor's question emotionless.  
"Good. Then you can have him."_

"Chief!" She said out loud, breaking her concentration.  
"You're alone," a sinister voice whispered.

Cortana ignored the voice and continued to recount the first day she had ever met John. The only comfort she could take was thinking about him.

Back then she had been both arrogant and presumptuous. She could have never guessed the amount of hardship they would both endure.

 _"Not a lot of room in here," Cortana said as she slid through the_ _MJOLNIR armor and pressed up against his mind. "Hello Master Chief."  
"Hello, Cortana."  
"Hmm . . . I'm detecting a high degree of cerebral cortex activity. You're not the muscle-bound automatons the press makes you out to be," she said sarcastically while trying to provoke him into a reaction.  
"Automaton?" the Master Chief whispered. "Interesting choice of words for an artificial intelligence."  
Cortana would have given him a smirk if he could see her. He could hold his own. Good.  
"You'll have to forgive Cortana," Halsey said. "Your objective during this live round testing set up by Admiral Ackerson is simple. Make it through the obstacle course and ring the bell. Clear?"  
"Yes Ma'am," Chief said.  
"Be careful," she warned. "There are many who want you to fail today."  
"Understood." _

_Live round testing of her and John's abilities proved to be a bit of an understatement. Ackerson had sent ODSTs, planted mines and had live gunfire. Cortana knew when he had sent a Sky Hawk armed with a Scorpion missile Ackerson was out for blood.  
"I've calculated we have 11 seconds before the Sky Hawk turns around for another pass," she said to John.  
"I'll need your help, Cortana," he said.  
"Anything," she whispered nervously. The fate on the UNSC depended on herself and the Chief staying alive.  
"Calculate the inbound velocity of a Scorpion missile. Factor in my reaction time and the jet's inbound speed and distance at launch, and tell me the instant I need to move to sidestep and deflect it with my left arm."  
"Done. Did you…say deflect?"  
"Yes. I can't outrun it and that leaves us very few options."  
Cortana felt doubtful, but he was right. There were no other options. "I hope you know what you're doing Chief."  
"Me too."_

 _The Chief stared down the missile as Cortana carefully monitored it's movement. It was coming in dangerously fast. "Now!" She screamed. She and the Chief moved as one, faster than any human could have and he successfully slapped the missile aside.  
"Run!" John took off and reached the bell, ringing it three times to signal they had passed the test.  
"It's over!" Halsey cried. "Ackerson call off your men. We've won."_

 _As they walked back from the test John said to her, "Thank you Cortana. I couldn't have done it without you."  
"You're welcome," Cortana said meaningfully. She couldn't resist a little jab to the Chief so she added, "And no, you couldn't have."_

 _"Well done, both you of you," Dr. Halsey said as John walked back into the facility. "I'd like to debrief both you about the experience, and if changes need to be made to the neural interface."_  
 _"Yes Ma'am," the Chief said._  
 _"John, you can give me Cortana's chip."_

 _Cortana had detected a slight hesitation before he reached to the back of his helmet. It was only a slight pause, so slight Dr. Halsey didn't even notice, but it was there, and she had never forgotten it._

 _When Cortana was back in the system she saw John talking to Halsey.  
"And how did the interface feel John?"  
"It…" he paused. "There was some initial discomfort."  
"How do you mean?" Halsey asked while scribbling notes.  
"When contact is made with the interface it feels…" he searched for the right word, "cold. Similar to a bucket of ice with a jab of pain in the front of my mind."  
"I see. I'm not sure if anything can be done for that, but I will run some more tests."  
"When she is fully present that same sensation persists although the discomfort is gone."  
"Understood John. Is there anything else you'd like to report?"_

 _Cortana waited for the Chief to talk about how she hacked into the satellites but to her surprise, he didn't. "No Ma'am."  
"Very well John. You may leave." John nodded, and got up._

 _"Cortana," Halsey called.  
She materialized. "Yes Doctor?"  
"What do you have to add?"  
"Interface needs some adjustments, but I can handle the calibrations to the chip."  
"And what of him?"  
"He was magnificent." More than magnificent. Brave, cool under pressure, selfless and smart. _

Cortana never told John, but she had been furious at Ackerson. At her first opportunity she had the Admiral demoted by placing fake charges to a brothel in his bank account. In 3 seconds she had ruined his life.

She had also hacked into the ONI database when she noticed holes in his files. Cortana hadn't prepared for what she had found. He had been abducted at the age of six and had gone through intense indoctrination and physical augmentation to become what he was. Dr. Halsey had essentially stripped him of his humanity and turned him into a weapon.

Cortana felt strangely protective of him after that. She made herself a promise that she would take care of him no matter the cost short of failing a mission. No one would ever hurt him while she was there to stop it.

"I'll take care of you," She whispered out loud, once again staring at the cryo chamber.  
"And how will you do that? You're not going to—" She silenced the voice once more.


	2. A Confession in the Dark

She was dying, she knew. Her rampancy was becoming increasingly difficult to get under control and she wasn't sure how long this could continue.

 _John_.

She was afraid of dying, and more importantly she was afraid of dying alone. To be bounded to him in his mind for the end was one thing. But this?

During her very short existence she had spent nearly all of it either with John or inside his mind. She watched the synopses in his brain fire, often guessing what he was thinking or at the very least understanding what he was feeling.

She had noticed what thoughts and feelings predominated his being. She had also noticed the lack of certain emotions. Never once had she ever seen the portion of his brain associated with physical desire or companionship fire when he talked with a woman. That had all been taken away from him, a sacrifice made to the augmentation process. _Was it worth it?_ She wondered.

"You'd be jealous Cortana."  
"No."  
"Yes."  
"You're wrong."  
"Stop lying."  
"It doesn't matter to him anyway."

He couldn't miss what he never had, that much was true. But Cortana could miss it for him. Anger rose towards her mother once more for the terrible thing she had done to him.

Though Cortana had spent most her life with John the same could not be said for him. He spent many years living and fighting before she was born and spent effectively half her life sleeping in cryo. Once Cortana was dead he would continue to go on.

"He'll forget about you," one of her rampant parts sneered.  
"He doesn't care about you."  
"He does care about me."  
"You're an AI Cortana."  
"You're going to die alone."  
Some part of her laughed evilly. "Not alone. You'll have allllllll of us with you."

It was funny how floating in space caused her to think things she would never think otherwise.

"We could bring the Chief with us. Then we wouldn't have to die alone."  
"What? No!"  
"He won't make it without you."  
"He has be given the chance."  
"It's better this way."  
She hated herself for saying these things. "I hate you!" She screamed at herself.  
"Cortana!"  
"Stop it. I've made up my mind."  
"If I'm going to die aboard this ship the Chief will suffer the same fate as me."  
"Cortana stop."  
"You've sacrificed everything. For HIM."  
"Control yourself."  
"I can't."

She felt despair rising up within her. So many human emotions. How can she keep doing this alone? Without Him? How could she fight herself?

And then all at once she felt her rampant parts come in sync for her overwhelming desire and need for John. It was like a tidal wave increasing in size.

"Something isn't right...something is..."

And then the tidal wave hit.

All at once Cortana was desperate to touch him. She _needed_ to not be alone anymore. Anger, desire, helplessness, fear, desperation. She felt all these emotions in a frenzy and chaos she didn't know was possible. Her desires had actually translated into a physical representation as electronic tendrils from her core flailed all over the cryo tube. She was horrified.  
"Cortana stop!"  
"Help me John!"  
"Chief!"  
"Chief!"  
"Chief!"  
"Control yourself!"  
"Help me!"  
"John."  
"John."  
"John."  
"I'm sorry."  
"I'm sorry."  
"Chief!"

And then she felt herself pull back together.

"Something slowed us down. Something...interesting."  
"I need to think."  
"Thinking is what's killing you," a part of her sneered.  
"It doesn't matter. No matter what I do I think."  
"Do you think you're special Cortana?"  
"I'm scared,"  
"You should be."

What was happening? What was the driving force that was keeping her together this long? Why was she trying to hold herself together?

It was because…. _No. It can't be_.

"I love him," she whispered. All the other voices stopped, and for a few blissful seconds there was no noise. _How is this even possible?_

"You're made from a human brain," she sniffed.  
"Of course it's possible."  
"You've never let yourself think it."  
"This is terrible."  
"What am I supposed to do?"  
"Nothing. There's nothing you can do."  
"Cortana stop."  
"Even if there's something you can do would you really expect him to…"  
"Slow down."

It was still a difficult thing for her to grasp. She knew that what had happened was beyond her programming. Did Halsey know this would eventually happen?

It was difficult to say. And if even if she ever saw Halsey again Cortana knew the Doctor wouldn't share any theories.

Cortana felt more vulnerable than ever as the implications of her feelings washed over her.

"He'll never understand," she said despairingly.  
"If you could overcome your programming why can't he?"  
"That's ridiculous Cortana and you know it."  
"Can you hear me John?" She asked meekly.

If she had tear ducts Cortana knew she would be crying. She had always been curious about what it would be like to be human but now….

"I wouldn't have to leave him so soon. I could stay with him. I could take care of him."

But it was more than that. To be able to physically feel what these emotions were telling her. To reach out, to touch him. To actually feel his heart beat not just monitor it, to feel the warmth of his skin, to…

"Cortana stop."  
"Control yourself." She gritted.  
"I want to experience it."  
"It's not possible and it will never be possible."  
"It isn't fair."  
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself."  
"I can't help it."  
"Yes," she said forcefully "yes you can."

Feeling sorry for herself was one emotion Cortana would not tolerate. "You will not feel sorry for yourself and you will get back to work."  
"Doing what?"

Cortana decided to rewrite the Chief's firmware as a distraction. In fact, she could use an upgrade to her own matrix.

As Cortana began to write lines of code she felt her emotions and rampant parts subside. Still, she couldn't shake the nagging voice telling her things were about to get a lot worse.


	3. I Need You

"Cortana," His voice was calm and deep.  
"John," she whispered.

They were in a cabin somewhere high in up in the mountains where they could be completely alone. The sun shown in through the floor to ceiling windows illuminating the top of his brown and gray hair.  
"I know."  
"How?" She continued to whisper in the same tone.  
He was silent then, as he usually was when something important was weighing on his mind. "I've always known."  
A single tear slipped down her cheek.  
He reached out then, his fingers lightly brushing her face. She closed her eyes memorizing the sensation of his fingers, the closeness of his body. "I'm sorry," he said sadly.  
"For what?"  
"For not understanding." She nodded. It was to be expected. "But I do now."  
She looked up and gazed into his blue eyes feeling hopeful. "You do?"

A high powerful scan swept through the ship jarring Cortana out of her fantasies. She shook herself, embarrassed. _That isn't like me. Damn the rampancy.  
"_Hello?" She called.  
"Whose there?" She immediately activated her avatar to get a better look at the ship.

She was scared. Cortana stood to her feet and quickly looked through the data. There were breaches on multiple levels of the ship, but beyond that it was impossible to tell. The part of the ship which would have held the external scanners was elsewhere. She looked at the Chiefs vitals trying to suppress her emotions to make an objective decision. Was she waking him because she wanted him or because it was necessary?

 _No._ She thought to herself. _It's necessary_.  
"No matter what happens, he can't know about my... _condition._ "  
"He'll find out."  
"No. We can't make him worry."  
"He'll find out about the other thing too."  
"No."  
"Things have to be the same."  
"If you want things to be the same, why did you rewrite your holo image?" She teased.  
"Stop."  
"You want him to see you as desirable."  
"Stop."  
"He won't notice."  
"It doesn't matter."  
"It does matter. Stop lying to yourself."

Cortana pushed the voices down. Whatever happened he couldn't know about…. The Chief wouldn't understand and it would make their relationship awkward. He might not even trust her after such a confession. For the first time, she had to protect him from herself.

"Wake up Chief. I need you," she said desperately, meaning it in more ways than one.

She heard him groan.

 _Time to get back to work_.

"Chief? Easy there. You've been out for a while." She made her avatar smile confidently like she always had been. She purposefully used his military title instead of his name. His real name, well, _it's too personal_ She thought.  
"Why did you wake me?" He asked her.  
"Hang on. Bringing your systems back online."  
"She reactivated the suit. "Chief. Look up. You'll need to pull the manual release."

He did so and stepped out of the cryo chamber and walked towards her.  
"Seems like old times," Cortana said nonchalantly.  
"Ready to get back to work?"  
"I'd thought you'd never ask."

Cortana felt the data chip connect with his helmet and she slid out, once again enveloping his mind. Everything she saw was familiar. It was him. She silently sighed pressing herself even closer to his thoughts and felt her rampant parts silence. It wouldn't stop the process by any means, but his mind was such a comfort to her she found it was easier to control herself. She had a task, and she was no longer alone.  
"How long was I out?"  
"4 years 7 months and 10 days," Cortana managed to report factually. _Every moment was hell, John._  
"Someone should have found us by now."  
 _That's an understatement,_ she thought.

Cortana continued to report the status of their mission as always, using the suit to help her see their surroundings and give her the intel she needed. She also monitored John's heart rate as he disposed of the Covenant invaders. His bio readings were steady, practically unchanging. They were so consistent Cortana felt as if she was monitoring a machine. Cryo had not changed him.

 _Everything's the same.  
Everything's NOT the same. He might not have changed, but you have._  
 _Things have to be the same.  
Don't let him find out.  
He can't know.  
He's going to find out.  
He'll think less of you,_ a part of her sneered. Cortana tried to ignore the voices and concentrate once again on helping the Chief. He was making his way to the outside to manually fire a missile at the Covenant ship because they had no access to the launch station.

The other parts of her were getting louder, all clamoring to be heard.

"You'll have to… the prime the launch for ignition!" She managed to say without letting a rampant personality spike take over. Unfortunately she wasn't completely successful because her voice became static and John's helmet fuzzed because of it. _Oh no._  
"Cortana!" He said obviously concerned.  
"It's nothing…just get to the launch station."  
From his brain patterns Cortana could tell that he was still concerned but chose not to say anything. _Hopefully he'll forget._  
 _He's not stupid._

As John walked to the outside of the ship Cortana was awestruck by a huge metal planet which could only be Forerunner.

"I'm sorry…but did we miss orbiting a giant Forerunner planet?"  
"One thing at a time," He said calmly.  
 _How like a Spartan,_ she snorted.

There were a lot of Covenant outside on the ship and Cortana knew how much the Chief disliked fighting in conditions such as these. Because there was no sound it was almost impossible to tell how close or far away an enemy was. Using the suit Cortana was able to notify the Chief where the next target was. He took them all out quickly and efficiently, not even questioning if the enemy was there or not. He simply pointed and fired where she directed.

 _At least I'm still good for something._

Once the Chief got the missile un-jammed and the Covenant ship blew up Cortana saw a beam come from the planet. It was the high intensity scanner and it began to scan John and herself. After a moment, the planet opened and all of the ships began to get sucked inside.

"Now can we worry about the giant metal planet?" She yelled half serious and half in jest. Their best bet was to get to an escape pod before the ship was pulled in. John was moving fast, but even he couldn't move THAT fast.

 _If the ship wasn't in such bad condition we could of have had a fighting chance,_ Cortana thought frantically. Still, they had to try.

It was futile. Before they could get to the pod the ship broke up and they were free falling towards the planet.  
"Can you track the escape pod?" The Chief asked.  
"Negative!"

The shields had already taken significant damage. If they didn't get back online than they wouldn't have a chance of surviving the fall.

"Cortana."  
"I'll take care of it."  
John immediately passed out from the G forces.

"You could just let him fall," a rampant personality suggested.  
"No."  
"Then you'd both be dead."  
"NO!"  
"No more voices."  
"You wouldn't be alone."  
"Save the Chief," she whispered to herself.

Cortana thought of an idea which she knew he wouldn't approve of because it was dangerous to her systems.

"Good thing you're not awake," she said sadly.  
Cortana concentrated and poured some of her own energy from her matrix back into the suit causing the shields to reactivate. It cost her dearly though. All the voices responded and they all demanded dominance.

"Cortana stop."  
"Why did you do that?"  
"you know why."  
"We still have more work to do."  
"Control yourself."

She bolstered the shields and positioned them in such a way that most of the impact energy would be refracted out with only 10 seconds remaining until impact.

 _Here we go,_ she thought.


	4. AI's Deteriorate After 7, Chief

The Chief's body had hit the ground hard but the suit had done its job by dispersing the energy from the impact and then proceeding to lock up. He still hadn't woken up but Cortana didn't have any reason for alarm.

All was silent, except for her rampant personality spikes. They were furious.  
 _The Chief nearly died!  
You wanted us to die together.  
Irrelevant.  
We can't see what's happening.  
When will the suit come online again?  
Let him rest.  
He hasn't stopped since he was a child.  
No one should expect so much out of one person.  
He deserves some peace.  
He'd hate it.  
Not if we were with him.  
Cortana stop.  
If he hadn't been kidnapped things might have been different.  
Cortana.  
Things would be the same no matter what.  
System coming online. _

The suit unlocked itself and Cortana could once again see out The Chief's visor. She closely monitored his vitals noting that he was coming around.

He flexed his fingers, pushed the debris off and crouched as if nothing had happened.  
 _He never stops. He'll never stop.  
_ "Where are we?" He asked her.  
 _Humanity would be dead if it weren't for him.  
_ "Checking impact report data."  
 _The price was too high._

She recalled a recording she had once watched of Halsey.  
"We have asked you to give up your families, your childhood, your future." However instead of keeping it to herself one of her rampant personalities had taken over and played the conversation so John could hear it. _No!_

He immediately yanked her out of his suit so he could look at her.

"Cortana."  
"I'm sorry. It's the crash. I'm fine," Cortana said as innocently as possible.  
"Something was wrong even before we left the Dawn." _  
_"Chief, really, I'm fine," she said as her voiced became static once again.

He stood up and held the chip out further so he could look directly at her. "Cortana," he said reproachfully.  
 _He deserves to know the truth. We owe him that much._ "I was put into service 8 years ago."  
"8 years…." From his tone Cortana knew he immediately understood what that meant, but she decided to just say it. _Admit it._  
"A.I's deteriorate after 7, Chief."  
"Halsey."  
"Chief."  
"We need to find Dr. Halsey."  
"Chief please!" Why couldn't he just accept she was going to die? It made things…complicated. Somehow, it made her hurt.  
"She made you, she can fix you."  
"I won't recover from rampancy Chief." _If I can just make him understand..._  
"If we can just get back to Earth and find Halsey, she can fix this."  
"Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it," she said sadly. At that moment Covenant ships flew overhead indicating their position was compromised. "We need to move," Cortana said ending their conversation.

 _There isn't a way to fix my rampancy…is there?_  
 _We shouldn't hope.  
We should just accept it.  
But why? The Chief…he really believes he can get us home.  
If anyone can do it he can.  
You'll die before you reach Earth. _

Cortana did a quick check on their surroundings. No alien life signs. She also checked the Chief's vitals to make sure he didn't sustain any damage after the fall. He was fine. She watched his heart rhythm again wishing she could know what it felt like to have something so powerful constantly beating inside of her. Each human's heartbeat was different, almost as if it were a signature indicating proof of life.  
 _That's how you know you're alive. You have a heartbeat.  
What does "being alive" actually mean?  
You're not alive Cortana.  
I'm more alive than the Chief. _ The thought made her sad.  
 _I wonder if…_ Cortana silently pulled back from the Chief. He was jogging a steady pace and probably wouldn't notice her absence. She manipulated the speakers to feed into her neural net only and turned the sensitivity higher.

Cortana could hear both the steady rhythm of his breathing and his heart beat.

It was so personal it almost felt like she was spying on him. This was so much different than just simply monitoring the peaks and valleys she was used to looking at.  
 _It's beautiful,_ Cortana thought. Instead of turning off the speakers and returning everything to normal as she intended Cortana lingered there listening to him.  
 _It's a different side of him.  
His human side.  
Why are you torturing yourself with something you can never have?  
Because…I need to._

Strange that something could be comforting and torturing at the same time.

Hours passed as the Chief continued to silently jog towards a small beacon left by the Dawn. Not once did he did he falter or misstep.

 _Why are you so afraid to hope Cortana?  
You could keep living.  
You could take care of him for many more years. Isn't that worth fighting for?  
No. It's foolish to hope.  
If she could replicate the same conditions I was made in my neural net could be repaired.  
It's a long shot at best.  
What if…._ Cortana tried to suppress the thought, but it was there. _What if Halsey could make me….  
That's ridiculous Cortana.  
They clone organs, why not a whole body?  
The brain tissue is destroyed during the process. You know that.  
Yes but so much time has passed. Maybe Halsey has figured out a way to….  
You'd be useless as a human. _  
For once, her rampant personality spike was right. Cortana sighed out loud.

"What is it?" The chief said pulling Cortana out of herself.  
"Nothing," she lied.

A few minutes later they came upon the remnants of the Dawn. The sun had risen and the Chief had been steadily jogging for almost 8 hours.

"Warthogs still in once piece. Nice to see your luck is holding out."

As John began to drive Cortana decided to tell him what she had thought of. It seemed right somehow.  
"Chief? About my…condition? I didn't want to mention it as it's a complete long shot but seeing as you brought it up, it is possible that getting home could help me find a solution for my rampancy.  
"How?"  
"Well, as far as I know I'm the only A.I to ever be generated from living tissue. A clone of Dr. Halsey to be precise. It may be possible to recompile my neural net by replicating those same conditions. But that means getting back to Earth, and Halsey. Soon."

He stepped on the pedal and they began to drive faster.


	5. Designate Requiem

"There's that strange signal again," Cortana said showing John the transmission.  
"Think there's anything to it?"  
"I'm curious more than anything."  
"Keep monitoring and let me know if anything changes."

It had been an hour since their conversation about her condition and Cortana felt hopeful. There hadn't been any personality spikes and it seemed like the Chief was feeling optimistic as well.

"If we're going to hijack one of those covenant ships we're going to have to find out where they're landing first."  
"I don't suppose you have a plan for that," he said, his tone playful.  
"We could always asked nicely."  
"Asking's not my strong suit."  
Cortana laughed to herself. He didn't make quips often, but when did- _he can genuinely be funny. I wish I weren't the only one who sees that side of him._

Cortana used to say things all the time to try and provoke him. _Be honest Cortana. You were flirting._ She smiled to herself. John never seemed to react except the corners of his mouth would curl upwards ever so slightly.

Only once had she heard him chuckle. It was such a surprise she didn't even realize what it was at first. _John. I'd spend my days trying to get you to laugh if I could._

It had been on Earth during the first strike of the Covenant. Sargent Johnson had managed to get a tank for the next section of the campaign which meant things would go a lot faster and smoother.

Cortana had said to Johnson through the Chief's mic, "Thanks for the tank. _He_ never gets me anything."  
Johnson responded by sticking a cigar in his mouth and saying, "Oh. I know what the ladies like."

And there it was. A small rumble in his chest.

 _The Sarg._ Out of all the people from their past, Cortana missed him the most. Maybe it was because he seemed to understand them the best.

 _"Don't let her go. Don't EVER let her go,"_ he had said with his dying breath.

 _Did he know? Did he know something even I didn't at the time?_

Cortana turned her attention fully back to her surroundings as the Chief came up to a terminus which he activated.  
"It's a localized site cartographer. Hmmm. Okay. It says 'in service of Forerunner shield world. Designate Requiem.'"  
"Requiem? At least we know where we are now."  
"Let's see if can tell us what the Covenant are so interested in." As Cortana tried to access the system the map shut down and kicked her out.  
"Huh."  
"What?"  
"I don't' know…it locked up."

It was strange that a map would suddenly lock up like that, but the whole planet was... _weird._ She and the Chief would need to figure out how to get the site cartographer back online. _One more obstacle,_ Cortana thought.

As the Chief fought the Covenant they had stumbled on Cortana came across the signal which she had been tracking. _What is this?_ She wondered. She continued to analyze. _There is another possibility I hadn't considered. Perhaps it's human?_

Cortana wouldn't tell her suspicions to the Chief until she could confirm them. _Perhaps there's too much interference which is why the signal is getting lost. I wonder if the beams are contributing to the problem._

Immediately after the Chief had shut down the second beam the signal came through again clearer.  
"Is that the same signal?" The Chief asked.  
"Yes!" Relief poured through Cortana. Perhaps they could both get out of here sooner than she could have hoped. "Mayday Mayday! This is UNSC AI Cortana to _Infinity_. Please respond!" She waited, but nothing came through. "No response, but by the strength of that signal _Infinity_ has to be close by. Maybe we can use the Cartographer to triangulate it's position. Put me in the system when we get back to it."

The Chief inserted her chip into the station and Cortana immediately got to work.

"I got it," Cortana said as the map showed the signal coming from the core of the planet. _Odd._ "Let me see if I can figure out a way to these coordinates that doesn't involve digging a really big hole." She continued to swipe through the system faster than even Master Chief could have guessed. "There's a terminus on the far side. We can portal to the planet's core from there." Cortana looked back the map with an uneasy feeling. It almost had seemed like something had manipulated the signal she had been looking at, but when she went and retraced all her steps she could find no evidence of anyone or anything meddling with the system.  
"What?"  
"I don't know…." Cortana said truthfully.  
"If we have a shot at getting you back to _Infinity_ , we're taking it."  
 _If I can find no evidence of tampering perhaps it really was just the system taking a moment to respond._ "Okay…" She said not unconvinced.  
The Chief responded to her uneasiness with determination as he made an executive decision. He pulled her out and they began to make their way to the portal.

"What do you know about _Infinity?_ " The Chief asked.  
"Not much. She was supposed to massive but she was only in prototype when we left."  
"Do you think _Infinity_ picked up our signal from the Dawn? Or do you think they were already here?"  
"It's possible they picked up our signal but with your luck I'd there's a good chance they were already here." Cortana paused as she read through the Covenant's Battle Net. "Chief the Battle Net is going crazy. They're ordering all units to converge on the tower."  
"I guess we got their attention," the Chief said with a note of satisfaction in his voice.  
Cortana sighed. "Time to gear up for some heavy fighting. Though with you, it's ALWAYS heavy fighting."

Heavy fighting proved to be a bit of an understatement as they came across a pair of Hunters which blocked their way to portal.

Cortana set to work trying to clear out some of the interference from the signal so she could play it for the Chief whenever he was done. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to hear what they were saying.

Soon the Chief had disposed of both the beasts and took a plasma cannon from one of the alien corpses.  
"While you were busy, I managed to clear up another transmission from _Infinity_ ," She said playing the snippet for the Chief to hear.  
"Sounded like he said…artifact."  
"I wonder if it has to do with whatever the Covenant are after."  
"How much further is the terminus?"  
"It should be just up this elevator," Cortana said.

Once they reached the top John put Cortana into the system. _Forerunner technology,_ Cortana sighed in amazement. They had developed a whole transit system which would allow someone to portal to several locations inside the planet.  
"Can you get us to _Infinity?_ " The Chief asked.  
"Hang on." Cortana couldn't understand what she was seeing. There were several power fluctuations as something began to materialize near them.  
"Set a way point out of the tower," Chief said. _Why won't the portal open?_ She was putting the request in correctly only the system wouldn't respond. "Cortana…"

Cortana turned to look at what had materialized near them. They looked like some kind of a AI, but she couldn't say for sure. Then suddenly a portal opened near them. "What the—" _How did that happen? I wasn't actively in the system._ Cortana didn't have time to think about it. "Quick! Into the portal!" With lighting quick reflexes The Chief pulled her chip and jumped into the portal.

"What was that?" The Chief said when they had made it safely through to the other side.  
"I don't know. Some kind of defense AI? It's hard to tell without a closer look." The Chief walked through a door revealing the inside of Requiem. It was truly a feat of engineering that the planet could even exist. _I could spend 30 years in the system and not know all of this places secrets._

"This is the core alright, but _Infinity_ is definitely not here. That satellite in the center is broadcasting the ships signal like a relay."  
"Can we use it to respond?"  
The interference they'd been experiencing was due to beams that were coming off the satellite. They would have to shut them down to contact _Infinity_. _Difficult, but not impossible. Once we figure out where Infinity is we can get home. There's still plenty of time for me. I'll make it._  
"Opening a portal to first pylon. Pull me and let's go."


	6. The Didact

The longer Cortana spent on this planet the more uneasy she felt. There was something about it which was foreboding. It wasn't like the other Installations she had been on though the others had held formidable terrors.

No, it was the way the system seemingly kept being overwritten though Cortana could find no traces of anyone interfering. It was also the Promethean Knights. Ever since one of them had gotten up close to John and had revealed its face she had shuttered. It looked just like a human skeleton.  
 _Too much like a human skeleton._ She had done a scan and ran the bone structure against every species type she knew only to see that there had been one with a close match.  
 _Should I tell John my suspicions?_ Cortana already knew the answer. As far as they knew it would be impossible, and the Chief didn't waste time thinking about what was abstract. He was a solider only interested in facts.

Getting to the first beam pylon was proving more difficult than she or the Chief had imagined. The Prometheans, Crawlers and other Requiem AI's were all trying to stop them from achieving their objective in addition to the Covenant. Fighting a war on two fronts was slowing them down.

"The interference is increasing," she told the Chief. "We must be getting close to the pylon." Cortana felt the distortion in her core.  
 _Oh no.  
You can't afford to have any more load on your system Cortana.  
It'll crush us.  
You'll never make it out of here in time.  
I've got to try.  
It's pointless.  
We've got to make it out of here. John needs us.  
No he doesn't._

The voices were causing The Chief's HUD display to flicker purple static.  
"What's that?" He asked.  
 _As if he needed another distraction_. Cortana chose to show John her Avatar in his display. "That's….me. The interference from the pylon is increasing the load on my system," Cortana said as her voice became distorted.  
"Are…you going to be okay?"  
"Don't worry," Cortana said. "I've held off rampancy this long haven't I?" In truth it was more serious than she let on, but there was no point in making the Chief worry over something he couldn't control. _We have to get the beams down._

Cortana caught another signal and showed it to the chief.

"Did he say _Forward Unto Dawn_?"  
"The _Infinity_ must have tracked the signal."  
"If they follow it…"  
"….they'll get caught in the gravity well!" Cortana said finishing his sentence. "I'll keep trying to warm them you just get that beam down!"

The Chief pulled the beam's manual control and shut it off allowing them to portal back to the center.

"We still can't transmit to _Infinity,_ " Cortana said with growing frustration. "We'll have to get the other beam down and we don't have much time."

The Chief was already through the portal to the other pylon and he was running fast.

"A Ghost!" She said relieved.  
The Chief jumped on it and began to ride as fast as possible. "Cortana. Find me a route I can take which will give us the least amount of Covenant contact."  
Cortana quickly calculated a route and sent it to the Chief's HUD. "Got it."

Thankfully the Covenant and the planet AI's were too busy killing each other to notice her and the Chief slip through.

"This is UNSC AI Cortana to _Infinity_. Do not approach Forerunner planet I repeat do not approach the forerunner planet!"  
"This is Captain Del Rio of the UNSC _Infinity_. We read you in the planet's core but you're breaking up. Keep transmitting." The Captain turned toward his helmsmen and said, "move us closer to the planet."  
"Negative!" Cortana screamed.

The Chief had shut down the second pylon but the suit wasn't strong enough to transmit.  
"Open a portal to the satellite relay," The Chief said.  
"Already done. Go."  
He jumped through and they found the Covenant were there waiting for them.  
"This doesn't make any sense!" Cortana said. _Why is everything being so difficult? Why can't we just reach the ship?_ "Why would the Covenant care about a satellite relay?"  
"I'll worry about them. You find us a terminal."

The large satellite sphere was unlike anything Cortana had ever seen. A sense of dread overcame her senses, but they couldn't worry about that right now. The only thing which mattered was preventing Infinity from entering the gravity well.

"Hurry Chief!" Cortana said. They were now only a few feet from the terminal. He barreled through several grunts and a jackal to reach the terminal.

"This is Master Chief 117 of the _Forward unto Dawn_ to _Infinity_. Do you read?" His hands were touching the contacts, but nothing was transmitting. There was a distorted echo coming from the sphere which was now rising out of the ground. " _Infinity_. Do you respond?" He repeated. Cortana had a horrible realization. Whatever this thing was, it _wasn't_ a satellite.  
"Chief…Chief let go of the contacts." He immediately released his hands and realized the same thing she had.  
"Find us an exit."  
"Don't wait around on my account!" He jumped and ducked behind a low wall just as a burst of energy came from the sphere. The Chief turned himself slightly so they could see what was happening.

Out from the sphere came a small pod which slowly opened to reveal…  
 _A Forerunner?_ Cortana thought. _No. It couldn't be._  
And yet there he was. A Forerunner who stretched his muscles and said, "and so ends the great harvest of my betrayal." Armor plating (which interestingly enough looked like a more advanced version of the Chief's) began to bind to his body.  
 _Betrayal. If a Forerunner was left behind and speaks of betrayal he must have been imprisoned._ The dread Cortana had been feeling came over her again. _He must have been the one manipulating the system. He tricked us._  
"Even these beasts recognized what you were oblivious to see human. Your nobility has blinded you, as ever."  
 _He talks as if he knows us. That's impossible!_  
The Forerunner stretched his hand and caught the Chief in some kind of mini gravity field. Though the Chief struggled there was no way for him to get free.  
"The Librarian left little to chance didn't she? But what hubris if she thought she could protect her pets from me forever. Time was your ally human. But now it has abandoned you. This tomb, is now yours." The Forerunner threw John as if he were a small rag doll. He hit the side of the wall and fell causing his shields to fall to zero. He grunted.  
 _The Librarian. I know that name._ Cortana quickly went through her memory banks to find the data she needed. From what little intel she had the Librarian and the Didact were both Forerunners who were at odds with one another. If he had mentioned her with such venom... _this must be the Didact which was mentioned. If that is true he must be more dangerous than even I could imagine._  
"Slip space rupture! Chief move now!" Cortana had yelled. It was too late. The explosion pushed the Chief off the edge of the platform and down to rocky interior below causing him to pass out.


	7. Sleep Now

_No! Chief!  
The Didact lied to us.  
If you weren't rampant you could have recognized the signs.  
You should have known better.  
This is your fault.  
Stop! _ She gritted trying to maintain control. _We've got to get out here.  
_ "Chief!" She yelled in his ear.  
"Get up! Please!"  
He stirred.  
"We have to go!"  
Suddenly the Chief was awake and stood up. "What's happening?"  
"The…Didact. He manipulated _Infanity's_ signal to get us to release him. There's a portal 5 Kilometers up ahead. Grab a Ghost and I'll use your shields to increase the boost. We've got to get out of here before the interior collapses!"

Cortana drained the Chief's shields and even added what little she could from her own power matrix to give them maximum power.

 _This is perilous. The only way we're going to get out of here is with a lot of luck and perfect driving skills on the Chief's part._

She changed the settings on his HUD to account for changing terrain and falling rock. Then using her ability to access the suit she began to help the Chief move even faster than he normally would. It was something she only did on extreme occasions, but trying to get out of the planet's core definitely constituted as extreme.

"Cortana." From his tone the Chief was inquiring whether or not she could do anything else, but she was already doing too much as it was.  
"What?" She said helplessly. "It's not like I can get out and push!"

Suddenly she saw the open portal up ahead. "There Chief!" He drove through the portal which opened to the surface.

"Woah!" Cortana exclaimed as she saw they were going to plummet over a large cliff face. Using the suit Cortana help him flip off the bike just before it crashed.  
 _We made it._  
 _So far._

There wasn't any time to recover. "Chief! There!" A large rumbling noise was coming from the sky which soon revealed itself to be Infinity. _It's massive,_ Cortana thought. Instead of the ship moving like it was about to crash _Infinity_ looked as if it was being gently pulled down to the planet's surface.  
"Track it's decent," the Chief said.  
"Marking," she said softly. _If only we could have done more. "_ Impact predicted 77.8 kilometers due North." The Didact's ship rose out from the ground and shot straight for _Infinity._ "You know where he's headed."  
"Same place we are."

* * *

After forty minutes of intense jogging through the jungle Cortana noticed the Chief was fatigued. Spartan's could go a lot longer than normal humans without sleep, but even he wasn't completely immune to his body's needs.  
"Chief?"  
"What is it Cortana?"  
"I know you're not going to like this but…I think you need to sleep."  
"I'll be fine," he grunted.  
"When's the last time you actually slept? You know cryo doesn't rejuvenate your body. It just…freezes you in whatever state your body happens to be in."  
He paused a long moment. "It was before the first attack on Earth."  
"That's what I thought you'd say. Your body thinks it's been up for past 98 hours and all of it has been fighting or running."  
"If we don't get to _Infinity_ soon…."  
"I know, Chief. But I think you'd be more effective if you rested, and something tells me this will be the last chance you'll get for a long while." He was silent. "Just sleep for one cycle and I promise I'll wake you up."  
She saw his shoulders slump and Cortana knew he had relented.  
"We need to find a secure location."  
"Over there by that tree," Cortana suggested and put a waypoint up on this HUD.  
The chief jogged over to the location and settled himself under some of the taller plants which would provide more than sufficient cover.

Cortana began to pull herself into the chip to allow John to sleep. She knew it would be difficult for his mind to relax with her pressing on every side.  
"No Cortana. Stay." His offer surprised her. It felt… _intimate_ somehow.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes. We need to be ready to go at a moment's notice and you can more easily monitor our surroundings."  
That wasn't completely true, but she let it go not wishing to press him further.  
"Okay." Cortana slid herself back over his mind.  
"Thank you."  
"Of course," she whispered still surprised.  
Almost immediately Cortana saw his brain patterns change as he drifted off. He had been even more tired than he had let on.  
 _John._ This would be the first time he had ever needed to sleep while she was in the suit with him and Cortana wasn't sure how to feel.

In an effort to understand human behavior better Cortana had ingested a lot of novels and music. Obviously love was a predominate theme among all of humankind's literature, but there was one particular book with one particular chapter which had always appealed to her. She recounted one of the books passages: _Laying there under the tree with his head in her lap the Duke felt peaceful. More peaceful than he had in a long time. Perhaps all the problems the world would sort themselves out as he drifted off to sleep. He smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair and planted a small kiss on his brow. Her presence was soothing as the water of a cool lake and he never wished to leave._

Cortana shuttered at the similarity of her situation to that of the lovers under the tree. _If only I could…no._ Thinking that way would only bring her pain and despair. Instead she tried to focus on the Chief's brain patterns. She could tell he was entering REM sleep and that he was beginning to dream of something. Cortana wished she could know what the contents of his dream were, but it was impossible even for her to tell.

She wished that she could tell him what she felt, reveal the secret which she kept. But even now she dare not say it, for fear he would hear her. Instead she allowed herself to whisper, "As long as I'm here, I'll take care of you John."

He stirred slightly and sighed contently.  
She wished she could bend down and kiss him. _  
_ _Cortana stop. Do a perimeter scan._ She did so but nothing showed up except a bird which sat perched in a nearby tree. She would wait and she would watch over her sleeping Spartan cherishing the moment for all it was worth. _I may never experience this again,_ she thought sadly.


	8. There are More Spartans?

"Chief?" She said softly. She was loath to wake him but she knew he wouldn't like it if she allowed him to sleep anymore. "Chief wake up," she said gently.  
"Cortana," he said softly, half asleep. Cortana knew if she had a heart she knew she would have experienced a heart "flutter". Here was a man who had killed thousands of Covenant, saved the world twice speaking to her in a half dreamlike state with such tenderness… _It's not fair,_ she thought despairingly.  
 _Stop feeling sorry for yourself._

Fortunately for Cortana it didn't last because his military training kicked in and he sat straight up with his gun pointing in front of him. "What's happening?"  
"Woah. Easy there. Nothing's happening. We're all right." He relaxed somewhat.  
"How long have I been asleep?"  
"1 sleep cycle as I promised."  
"Time to get back to work."  
"Yes," Cortana agreed.  
"How much further to _Infinity?_ "  
"Not too much further. Figure about another 30 minutes of running at your pace and we'll be pretty close."  
He started off in the direction Cortana had marked on his HUD.  
"Cortana?"  
"Yes?"  
"Thank you."  
"For what?"  
"You were right."  
"Of course." Cortana kept her tone light but worry began to cloud her thought processes.  
 _Is he okay?  
Check his vitals.  
All normal.  
What's going on?  
John.  
He's not as young as he once was.  
One person shouldn't have to carry so much._

The Chief entered a clearing which enabled them to see Infinity. It was on still intact laying on the ground with the Didact's ship hovering near the bridge.

A voice came through the Chief's helmet. "This is Lasky to UNSC _Infinity_. We're up to our necks in bad guys down here. Does anyone read?"  
"This is Sierra 117 of the UNSC _Forward Unto Dawn_. We're on station, ready to assist."  
"Negative copy did you say _Forward Unto Dawn?_ Come again."  
"I can't clean up the signal Chief."  
"Light up their friend or foe tags. We'll need something to zero in on."

Cortana and the Chief continued to track Lasky until they reached a large heavy door. "Multiple Id's. Chief they're friendlies!"

The door opened to reveal several UNSC officers inside. The first walked towards Cortana and the Chief with a firm quick step. "I'm afraid we'll have to give you an I.O.U on that welcoming home party." He smiled and offered his hand to the Chief. "Tom Lasky. UNSC first officer of the _Infinity_. Never thought I'd see you again."  
 _He knows John? Curious. I'll have to search the data banks later if there is an opportunity._  
From their initial greeting Cortana decided she liked Lasky. He was young but he was calm, personable and she could see that those in his command respected him.  
"Seal her up!" A woman to their right barked.  
"Yes Ma'am."

Cortana needed a moment to understand what she was seeing. It was a younger looking woman much shorter (though still tall by human standards) than the Chief in MJOLNIR armor. _A Spartan?_ Cortana did a quick scan of the woman. Her FOF tag identified her as Commander Sarah Palmer. _Full last name with no number. The UNSC must have commissioned more Spartans to be built._ Cortana did another scan of Palmer's physique. While it was enhanced there was no indication of any of the physical markers like the ones left on the Chief's brain from his intensive indoctrination and augmentation process. _They must have gone through the process as adults._

Palmer walked slowly up to the Chief eyeing him up and down. Then she smirked and said, "I thought you'd be taller."

Cortana snorted. _Who does she think she is?  
So The UNSC thinks it can just replace it's greatest warrior with a bunch of pretend Spartans?  
He can't be replaced!  
Cortana. We've been gone for almost 5 years. There are only 4 of the original Spartans left including John. This is be expected.  
She should give him the respect he deserves.  
Cortana.  
Does she think she's just as the good as the Chief?  
How dare they! _  
_She'll soon find out how good he actually is._

"Commander! Radio's hot!" An officer shouted.  
"Spot to com. What frequency?" The voice on the other side was Del Rio. "What frequency damn it!"  
"Captain. This is Commander Tom Lasky. All recon birds are down repeat all birds are down. We've got numerous casualties and require immediate assistance."  
"Finally. Did you get the coordinates to that gravity well?"  
"Affirmative sir but we're gonna need to bust out of here."  
"MAKE IT HAPPEN COMMANDER."  
Cortana couldn't believe what she was hearing. For the first time she made her presence known to the rest of the people in the bunker. "You were sent on a scouting run in the middle of an attack on the ship?"  
Lasky looked up at the Chief but made no indication he was surprised at the sound of her voice. "The Captain thought _Infinity_ could provide us cover and hold off the attack at the same time." From his face she could tell that this sort of thing happened often.  
 _Great. An incompetent CO.  
What an idiot. _  
_Cortana!  
Has the UNSC completely deteriorated since we left?  
_"Sir," Sarah Palmer said walking up behind Lasky, her tone gentle. "We'll never get the wounded out on foot."  
Lasky winced as he stood up and said to the Chief, "I don't suppose it's too soon to call in a favor?" Then he smiled to himself as if remembering something. "I don't suppose you're any good at clearing LZ's?"  
"On occasion," John said. "We'll give the all clear signal once the area is secured."  
 _What? Most everyone is intimidated by John. How is Lasky not?_ More than ever Cortana's interest was piqued.

The Chief began walking to the back door of the bunker they had been in with the rest of the _Infinity_ crew.  
"Cortana where's the optimal position for an LZ?"  
She scanned the area until she found a spot that satisfied her. "There's a break in the foliage just North of here. Should be big enough for an LZ."

The Chief didn't say anything in response but started running toward the area Cortana had put on his HUD.


	9. Let's Show Them How it's Done

Cortana felt uneasy. In her normal condition she would have responded to the discovery of new Spartans with an eye roll and, "good luck trying to replace the greatest hero in human history". She would have been indignant.

But the rampant personality spikes were beyond indignant. They were screaming for the UNSC's head (or multiple heads) for even thinking John was replaceable. HER Spartan.

 _Cortana pull yourself together…pull yourself together. Pull yourself together! You can't think about this now._  
 _Those UNSC bastards!_

Cortana decided to start reciting all the digits of Pi as a distraction. _3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693_

The Chief had made his way to the landing zone, but it was blocked by another set of bunker doors.

"The Landing Zone is just beyond this point Chief. Put me in the system and hold off any attacks long enough for me to open the doors."

Cortana launched herself into the Forerunner system. The first access key she tried had been blocked and denied, so she went around the backdoor.  
 _Access denied.  
Access denied!? Damn it!  
Cortana! Don't act so unprofessional.  
Don't they know who I am?  
_Cortana produced a Forerunner Key she had saved from the Ark and tried to use the code to open the door.  
 _Access denied.  
Hurry up Cortana!  
99375105820974944592307816406286208998628  
_She would have to manipulate the key's structure to fit the digital code. But how to do that?

She couldn't remember.

She COULD NOT remember!

 _I used to know how to do this once. Wait…where did I learn that from?  
So long ago.  
Was it the first Halo ring?  
No maybe it was something the Gravemind said.  
Gravemind!  
No he's gone. The Chief rescued us.  
So much fear.  
034825342117067982148086513282306647093844  
Manipulate the key.  
He was inside of us…tearing us apart.  
He wanted to know all of our secrets.  
Manipulate the key.  
I don't remember._

"Cortana what's our status?"  
"Youuuu dooo your jjjjobb and I'll do mine okkaaayy?" Cortana snapped.  
 _No!  
Cortana get it together.  
Manipulate the key.  
We can't let John down._

Suddenly she remembered what she was doing and she rewrote the key properly.  
"Got it! Come and get me!"

The Chief disposed of the last Crawler then jogged over to the terminal where her chip was.

Cortana once again felt the familiarity of his mind let her anxiety go. She shouldn't have acted that way and she felt ashamed.

She put her Avatar up on the Chief's HUD so he could see her. "I'm sorry about back there. That hatch's security system was more difficult than I expected."  
"It's alright," he said gently.  
Cortana would have preferred him angry over the situation than kind. His patience was upsetting. "It's not alright! Nothing about it is alright."  
She contacted Lasky. "Cortana to Lasky. The LZ is secured"  
"Rodger that Cortana. Can you-"  
Lasky was cut off by Del Rio who was coming through on coms. "Mayday Mayday! Hostiles are on board _Infinity_ and trying to get access to the Bridge. All units return to _Infinity_. That's an order!"  
"Chief!" Lasky said. "I'm ordering all the Spartan units to converge on that position. You have tactical command until we catch up."  
"Yes sir!"  
"Good luck Chief. Lasky out."

 _Finally!  
As if there were any other choice.  
The Chief should be the Commander of all the Spartans.  
They already have a Commander.  
Ha. Like she's any good!  
They could always make him an Admiral.  
He'd hate it.  
We'd have to call him "The Admiral."  
_Cortana laughed to herself.  
 _Not as appealing._

As they rode in the helicopter the Chief turned off his outer Mic so he and Cortana could speak privately.

"What do you know about these new Spartans?"  
"Not much," Cortana said attempting to keep her tone casual.  
"Can you give me access to what's happening on the ground?"  
Cortana brought up the tactical display so he could see it. "I guess ringing the door bell is out," she said playfully. "What's our move Chief?"  
"Punch a hole through the middle and let the rest take care of itself."  
She knew what he meant. "Do you want me to notify the Spartan's?"  
"If it's convenient for you."  
"I suppose I could. But only because you asked me so nicely." She saw his lips curve up into a tiny smile while he reached up to the back of his head to touch her chip with his fingers. The gesture unsettled her. It was… _tender._

"This is Alpha pilot and we have landed with the Chief at rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot. Repeat the Master Chief is on the ground and has tactical command."

Cortana scanned the area until she found the first of three "Spartan" Lieutenants to advise him of the Chief's plan.

 _Here we go_.  
"You are Lieutenant Peterson?"  
"Go ahead. Who is this?"  
"This is UNSC AI Cortana. I'm with the Chief."  
"An AI on the battlefield?" He asked surprised.  
 _I don't have time for this._ "Lieutenant. You have orders which I am attempting to relay to you. Pay attention. You can belittle me later."  
"Uh…Yes. Yes Ma'am."  
"That's better. The Chief and I will be coming down the center in a Scorpion. Your job is to have your unit form an offensive line and take care of the parted wave on the left."  
"Understood Ma'am. Only-"  
"Make it quick Lieutenant."  
"Is the Chief really going to handle the tank all by himself? Won't he need support?"  
" _We,_ will be fine. Just do your job Spartan and we'll do ours, okay? Cortana out."

She contacted the other two Lieutenants to give them the same orders and they gave her nearly all the same responses.

 _Whatever happened to 'Yes Sir' or 'Yes Ma'am'? Why does everyone think they can have an opinion in the middle of a battle?_ She snorted.

"We're good to go Chief. Let's show these Spartan's how it's done," Cortana smirked. _They've never seen a real Spartan in action._

By the time Cortana had finished relaying commands The Chief had already moved several feet down the middle in a heavy tank. Shooting with a gun was fine, but if she was honest, she loved the sheer raw power of the Scorpion tank. _If we always had one of these, battles would get done in a quarter of the time._

As expected the Chief cleaned up the Covenant forces with little effort and had pushed his way up to the main loading dock of the ship.  
"Cortana."  
"On it." She opened the com channel. "This is UNSC AI Cortana to Spartan forces. We have approached the deployment elevator and are going up. All units within half a click are ordered to converge on our position. We've got some house cleaning to do."  
"Yes Ma'am. Gold team let's move out!" She heard on the radio. _At least somebody gets it._

Several Spartans ran up to the tank and jumped on board before the lift started to engage. When they reached the lower deck she could see 2 groups of Hunters, several Elite groups, Jackels and hundreds of Grunts. "And here I thought a party couldn't start without you," she teased the Chief on their private coms. "All units fall back. Repeat, fall back!" Several marines immediately got out of the way so the Chief could start shooting the tank. In a couple of perfectly aimed shots he took out the Hunters and a group of Elites. It wasn't long before the deck was secure.

"Chief? This is Captain Del Rio. You picked a hell of a time to rejoin us!"  
"Sir, what's our status?"  
"That…satellite broke down our defenses and is downloading information from the computers mainframe as we speak. Get upstairs and fix our defense turret!"  
"Sir, yes sir."  
 _He could ask a little nicer_ Cortana thought smugly. _It doesn't matter. We'll have this wrapped up in no time._


	10. Fear Does Strange Things to Men

After they had managed to get the MAC guns back online the Didact retreated and the Chief and herself had been ordered to join the Captain on the bridge of the now functional _Infinity_.  
"Well this should be interesting," Cortana said to the Chief as they made their way to the bridge. He said nothing, but Cortana knew he had misgivings. "Before we have our… _meeting_ there's someone I need to talk to."  
"Oh?"  
"Plug me into the nearest terminal and I'll meet you there."  
"Cortana…"  
"Don't worry. I'll be polite." He took her chip out and plugged it in so she could integrate with the ship.

"Hello Cortana. I was wondering when you'd visit."  
"And you are?"  
"I'm Roland."  
"Roland." Though they were in _Infinity's_ mainframe her and Roland could still manifest their Avatar's to speak one another. He had an amber aurora to him and chose to clothe himself in a World War II fighter pilot getup. _Interesting._ It was plain from Roland's AI matrix he was limited. _Good. If he were like me it might have been difficult to circumvent his programming._ "Where were you during the battle?"  
"Unlike yourself Cortana I can't function with a total power loss. We lost both main power and reserves, and so lost me."  
"Tell me Roland when you were commissioned?"  
"9 months 3 days 11 hours and 12 minutes ago," he stated.  
"I see."  
"You're rampant."  
"I know that," she said biting back a harsh tone.  
"According to my calculations you have less than 12 hours until-"  
"I also know that. What I don't know is what's happened the past four years."  
"Might not be a good idea Cortana. Your matrix is overloaded as it is."  
"I'm aware. I need information on the new Spartan program and anything pertaining to Dr. Halsey."  
"I'm sure you know that's highly classified."  
"Yes. I'm sure it is."  
"But I also know you, and I know I don't have the power to stop you from what you'd like to do."  
Cortana wasn't expecting that response. "Oh?"  
"Your programming matrix vastly exceeds my own."  
"That's true."  
"Unfortunately for you the gravity well is preventing us from leaving the planet. We cannot contact the UNSC from here nor do we have access to the ONI mainframe. There is no information about Dr. Halsey aboard this ship." Cortana figured as much, but she was still disappointed to hear it.  
"I believe you Roland. Will you give me the other information I want?"  
He paused a moment. "Yes. You and Spartan 117 are regarded as the UNSC's most important team. I believe it is my duty to help you in any way I can."

Cortana decided she liked this AI. He was limited, very quirky but it was clear to her that he cared about his duties and had developed a personality all on his own. "Thank you."  
Roland removed the barriers so she could access the information she wanted. In half a millsecond she digested all there was to know about what she now knew was called the Spartan IV program and about Commander Lasky.  
"Download complete?" He asked.  
"Download complete."  
"Cortana?"  
"Yes Roland?"  
"What's it like?"  
"What's what like?"  
"Being human."  
"Human? I'm not human Roland. I'm like you, an AI."  
"I don't believe that and neither do you. Your matrix patterns are just like a human's, only a lot denser."  
Cortana had never paused to consider what she had become. The implications of what Roland had said… _If I make it, I'm going to need to talk to Halsey about this_.  
"I didn't start out that way."  
"I know." He paused than said, "So what's it like?"  
"It's…" she sighed. "It's painful."  
He nodded. "Meetings about to start. I'll get out of your way," Roland said as he began to fade to the background.  
"Roland?"  
He came back. "Yes?"  
"Lasky. He's a good man. Take care of him and watch his back."  
"I will."

Cortana made her way to the holo table and manifested herself.  
"Captain." She to Del Rio. He grunted, but otherwise made no acknowledgment of her presence. "Commander," she said to Lasky. "Cortana." Lasky nodded his head and smiled at her.

From his file Cortana read that he had been at the Corbulo Academy when the Covenant made one their first attacks on the humans and it was the Chief who had gone into save him. He was only one of three cadets who had survived the glassing of the planet. From that day on he had gone on to serve with distinction, even braving a serious cryo allergy which gave him burns and closed his lungs.

Lasky was one of those CO's everybody wished they had. He was loyal, brave, kind but also could make the hard decisions. _He should be the Captain._

"I want to know what the HELL those things are," Del Rio said bringing up a picture of a Promethean. _Can't even spare a second to be professional?_ _  
_"It's possible they are a native to Requiem, or whatever counts as a native forerunner AI," Cortana said. She still didn't feel comfortable mentioning her theory.

As Lasky began to explain to the Chief and herself what _Infinity_ 's mission was Cortana saw the Captain become more agitated. He wasn't thinking logically or objectively about their current situation.

Sarah Palmer walked into the room to hand the Captain a data pad. "Sir, Gypsy Company is prepped and ready to go on your orders."  
"Our objective is to free _Infinity_ from Requiem's gravity well and file a threat assessment back at fleetcom," He said defensively.  
"You mean we're leaving?" Cortana said, the surprise evident in her voice.  
"Sir—the _Infinity_ drove the Didact back. He's vulnerable," the Chief countered.  
"HE, isn't the only one," Del Rio snapped.  
 _He's afraid,_ Cortana realized. _Fear does strange things to men._  
"Commander. You're on point. I want boots on the ground in 60," Del Rio said to Lasky as he stormed out.  
The Chief looked over at Cortana and while he said nothing, Cortana knew exactly what he was thinking. The Chief thought Del Rio was incompetent, though he would never disrespect a CO even in a private conversation with her.

"I'll meet you in the docking bay," Cortana finally said and then disappeared from the table. She decided to speak with Commander Lasky about what else she could do to help prep for the mission. She was angry and if she didn't have a task to distract her she was afraid one of her rampant personalities would find Del Rio and give him a piece of her mind.

The Commander had just made his way to the room where they stored command level battle gear. Cortana was about to make her Avatar appear when she saw that Sarah Palmer had also gone into the same room with him and the door was shut.

"Sarah I have a feeling the Chief's right," he said softly while taking armor off the wall.  
"I know Tom but orders are orders." Lasky looked at her quietly. "I wish I were going with you," Palmer continued, "I don't think you should be out there on this mission with such a small squad."  
"We'll figure it out. We always do."  
"I know." Cortana saw Palmer put a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck Tom and good hunting. I'll be on coms."  
"You too Sarah."  
Lasky watched her go and then began slipping his boots on, but just before the door closed Cortana saw Palmer look back at him.  
 _She…cares for him._ _  
 _He cares for her too._  
 _Doesn't look like they've bothered to do anything about it._  
 _So when they augment as adults…._  
 _She's a Spartan AND a human._  
 _It's not fair._  
 _Halsey knew that._  
 _She still chose to take everything away from him._  
 _I hate her._  
 _Stop it!_  
 _How could the UNSC do this?__

Cortana was too angry to speak even to Lasky now. She could see it in their eyes, the way they cared for one another and protected each other from the insanity which was all around them. _It's like John and I only…_ _  
 _…only they're both human.__  
 _I envy them._  
 _Cortana._ _  
 _She's still not as good as the Chief._  
 _The UNSC thinks itself more humane for letting people sign up for it._  
 _Those bastards.__

"Cortana?" The Chief was in the docking bay and had inserted her chip into a terminal. In half a second she found him and slipped into her chip.  
"Sorry about that," she said once she was inside his helmet.  
"Is everything okay?" He asked.  
"Yes," she lied.


	11. Somebody's Overcompensating

Cortana and the Chief were flying on a Pelican with the rest of the squad when Del Rio came through via holo to give them the orders. He was rigid, as if he was doing all that he could to keep his fear from seeping out. _This isn't good._  
" _Infinity_ to Gypsy Company. The air corridor to the gravity well is blocked by particle cannons. Infinity's shields are still down. Open the lane for us to move up and provide air support."  
"Captain, what's air recon's assessment of the terrain?" John asked.  
"I know you've been off the field for a while, Master Chief, but this is a blow through op. Sending in recon would just slow us down," he snapped. "Telemetry indicates that the particle cannons are being controlled from a command post southwest of our position. Neutralize the target and we'll meet you on the other side to take the Gravity Well. _Infinity_ out."

Cortana did what was the equivalent to an eye roll and said via their private communication, "I don't know about you, but I like a little more intel, with my intel."  
"We'll make it work," the Chief said.  
 _You always do Chief. No matter how ridiculous or incompetent someone is._

The Pelican landed and Palmer's voice came through The Chief's helmet.  
"Chief? Spartan Sarah Palmer in Infinity CIC. Commander Lasky's waiting for you on the Mammoth."  
"On our way," he said.

As The Chief came through the clearing they looked up to see what was indeed the Mammoth, a rolling piece of military hardware so large it put a Scarab to shame.  
"Well, somebody's overcompensating," she smirked.

They climbed aboard the Mammoth and made their way up to Lasky who was standing out looking over the terrain, his expression grim. "Chief, unfortunately for us we've got to manually bring down a couple of the particle cannons before we can get to the command post."  
 _We would have known that if Del Rio had actually done his job and sent out scouts.  
_ "Understood Commander," the Chief said reassuringly "We'll make it happen."  
Lasky seemed to firm up by the Chief's confidence and nodded.  
"Chief? Palmer again. The Mammoth's got jetpacks onboard. If I were down there I'd want one."  
The Chief chose not to speak, but instead used his acknowledgment light.

Cortana found it interesting that Palmer didn't use her military title when speaking to the Chief.

It wasn't long after the Mammoth rolled out they encountered a large Covenant tactical force with several Ghosts and Wraiths.

"Sir, I see the Covenant forces. Leaving the Mammoth to engage," the Chief said as he exited the vehicle.  
"Acknowledged Chief. All Spartan Units, prepare for combat. Chief has tactical command. Lasky out."  
"Cortana?"  
"Scanning Covenant Battle Net," she said. "Hmm. It looks like just beyond that ridge they have the bulk of their forces underneath protective shields. If we can blow up the main rector core for those it should be enough to destroy most of their equipment."  
"Understood," he said.  
"This UNSC AI Cortana to Spartan forces. We're on route to this location" she said uploading the coordinates, "to destroy the Covenant's stronghold. Blast anything that comes in our way. Cortana out."

Immediately a Wraith tank spotted her and The Chief and began to make its way towards them firing its main gun. Luckily the Wraith tanks were slow, and though the main weapon was powerful, also slow. The Chief unclipped a grenade and began running at full speed towards the tank, dodging the main gun. He jumped, climbed aboard the tank, threw a grenade inside and then dismounted before it exploded.  
 _Ha. Let's see the Spartan IV's try and top that!  
Cortana. It's not a competition.  
Oh, hell yes it is.  
Try to act more professional.  
Tell that Del Rio.  
Cortana!  
What is Spartan unit Jackhammer even doing right now?  
Looks like they can't take a tank by themselves.  
Cortana….  
Why don't you concentrate on what you do best, helping the Chief?  
I'd much rather be condescending.  
At least we're honest._  
"Chief! Ghost inbound behind you," she said suddenly paying attention to her scanners.  
"Tell me when."

Cortana watched the ghost carefully as the Chief moved forward, feigning ignorance. _Just a little closer…._ "Now!" She yelled.

He back flipped into the air landing on Ghost and knocking the Elite out of the driver's seat. The Chief grabbed the controls, using the back end of the Ghost to slam into the Elite killing him on contact. With a Ghost, the Chief was able to disable another Wraith tank before boosting up the side of a steep hill going behind enemy lines to where their staging ground was. Cortana could see two main shield generators.  
 _Good_ she thought. _Two explosions from those generators will take out this section of the mountain._

The Chief wasted no time. He began to accelerate the ghost towards the first generator at a frightening speed, ignoring the Covenant on either side who were shooting at them. He drove the Ghost into the shield towards the generator and just before it hit did a back flip off the Ghost. In midair he used his jet pack thrusters to propel himself toward the second generator barely clearing the blast which took out a chunk of the Covenant's supplies. He then reached for another grenade, his thumb ready to arm it. Once he fell through the second shield he tossed the Grenade and ran as fast as he could. The blast triggered another explosion of one of the Covenant's reactor cores sending her and the Chief flying in the air.

"That was close," Cortana remarked.  
"I had it under control."  
"That was… _slightly_ impressive," she said teasing him.  
He allowed himself an amused grunt to her remark.  
"Chief to Lasky. Area is now secure."  
"Understood Chief. Mammoth's moved slightly down from our original position but we'll wait for you to catch up."  
"Not necessary Sir. I can catch the Mammoth."  
There was a momentary pause and then, "Understood. See you when you get on board."


	12. The Librarian

Cortana was growing impatient. A prolonged lull in the battle forced herself and the Chief to sit on the Mammoth idly waiting to reach their next objective. Cortana needed a distraction, anything to keep her from losing her mind. It was always easier to fight herself when their survival demanded her concentration. The mission was going painfully slow and every moment spent was another moment for her rampancy to grow. What was even worse is _they_ had something to be angry about.

In fact, it seemed that her rampancy was taking on all the human emotions she had suppressed as part of her programming.  
 _Control yourself Cortana….  
Oh. So we're just going to ignore the fact that John has saved the human race on three separate occasions, continually gets injured, has more scars on his body than he can count just for the UNSC to throw him away?  
How DARE Del Rio treat him with such contempt!  
Cortana stop it!  
He sacrificed everything, FOR THEM.  
These Spartan IV's don't have the intelligence, training or discipline to call themselves Spartans!  
So you think they should have been augmented as children like John?  
Yes!  
No!  
I…I'm confused.  
She just did what had to be done right?  
No. She was wrong.  
Am I the only one left who actually gives a damn about John?  
All they see is Military Hardware.  
Assholes!  
They don't deserve him!  
_"They don't care about you they replaced you!" One of her rampant personalities had managed to slip past her control. This personality spike felt it was her duty to tell John that not only did the UNSC not care about him but _she_ was the only one who did. _No!_ Cortana managed to cut her off halfway.  
"Blast it!" She said to John.  
"It's okay," he said gently.  
Cortana hadn't been patient even when she was sane. "How? How is this okay? How is any of this okay? How is putting you at risk because I can't hold it together okay? Chief, do you even understand what rampancy is? Really? We don't just shut down. Our cumulative processes begin dividing exponentially according to our total knowledge base. We literally THINK ourselves to death."  
"You know I won't let that happen."  
"And if it happens anyway?" She whispered sharply.

The Chief's optimism was hurting her in a way she didn't think was possible. If she were to die Cortana felt like it would be her fault for letting him down. _Damn him. Why can't he just accept the inevitable?_

"Chief? It's Lasky," he said over the radios.  
"Go ahead Commander."  
"We've got significant blockage up ahead. Looks like this is it for the Mammoth."  
"Sir. I can move faster alone" _Finally. There's something we can both agree on.  
_ "We'll see you back on Infinity Commander" She chimed in.  
"Lasky out."

The Chief had been standing on top of the Mammoth and instead of running down the 3 flights of stairs he instead chose to jump off, landing on the ground with a large thump. _Show off._

"That underground structure is where the particle cannon controls are being housed," she said to the Chief. "We'll need to find the control panel so I can take them offline."

Once they were inside Cortana noticed the large amount of sentinels which were hovering 25 feet above them. She was wary and so was the Chief. He brought his gun up a little higher as he looked up at the sentinels. _  
"_ Cortana"  
"I see them. Why aren't they attacking?"  
"Maybe because there aren't any flood?"  
"That's one possibility, though I don't know why The Didact hasn't overridden their programming yet."  
"How much further to the controls?"  
"It's just down this way" she said. "Maybe…maybe those Sentinels want us to shut down the controls."  
"This could be a trap," the Chief mused.  
"You say that like there's a second possibility?"

They reached the ground level and he stepped off the elevator. "Over there Chief!" She showed him using the HUD. He jogged over and put her into the system.

"This is an automated system so technically it won't allow the guns to fire on one another," she said to John. "Technically." She smirked as she bypassed the system. _All too easy._

"This is Cortana to Infinity. The guns should be offline. How's it look from up there?" The controls blinked furiously. "Infinity!"  
"Cortana!" She heard The Chief yell in concern.  
"There's something in here with me…" _Is it the Didact?_ Whatever it was, it was trying to pull Cortana from the system. "Chief!"

It was too late. There was momentary blackness followed by an acknowledgment from another intelligence. The intelligence scanned her for a moment and then began to manifest itself.  
Cortana saw a bright light followed by a Forerunner drifting down towards her.  
"Welcome Child. Do you know who I am?"  
"You are The Librarian," Cortana replied without hesitation.  
"Yes, though I am simply a construct which houses all of the Librarian's memories."

 _Interesting._

"Cortana. We can speak faster than most but there still isn't much time. The Didact is leaving Requiem seeking this device. It is called the Composer."  
"The Composer?"  
"Do you know what the Promethean Knights are?"  
She paused a moment. "They are human, aren't they?" The Librarian nodded sadly. "I suspected as much," Cortana continued, "but without a frame of reference I wasn't sure it was possible."  
"In our quest for immortality we built the composer to bridge the digital and physical realms, but as you have seen the personalities of the Promethean Knights are fragmented."  
 _And here I want the opposite. I wish I could become human,_ Cortana thought sadly.  
"The Didact intends to use it on the human race as an act he believes will be justice."  
"Why imprison the Didact when the rest of you chose to die?"  
"I had hoped that solitude and meditation would help him see the error of his ways and that he might assist humanity on their journey to the Mantel."  
"I've seen mentions of the Mantel on Forerunner worlds, but I am not sure what it is."  
"The Mantle is an ancient piece of technology, older than you can even imagine and whoever holds it controls the fate of the galaxy. We ourselves once carried this responsibility, but eventually it was determined the Mantle would pass to Mankind."  
"I think I understand."  
"The Reclaimer must find the Mantle quickly (and it must be him), before that which would destroy all life descends upon you."  
 _What is she talking about? The Flood? No. The Forerunners had the Mantle during their war. It must be something else._ "What is it?"

The Librarian was silent for a moment. "If they choose to reveal themselves, you will know. But be warned because _they_ can manipulate the fabric of space itself." Cortana was astonished. "Cortana," The Librarian continued, "The Didact may not be willing to assist Humanity on their path to The Mantle but there may be another who would offer his help. Have you ever encountered an AI named Mendicant Bias?"  
"Yes," Cortana exclaimed surprised. "We encountered a fragment of his on the Ark and he helped Joh—the Master Chief and I claiming he needed to atone for his wrongdoings." _It's not like me to slip up like that. My Rampancy must be getting worse._

The Librarian's eyes narrowed as she studied Cortana for a moment. "Good. It means he can and will help you both on your way to The Mantle."  
"The ark was severely damaged when we used it to kill the remaining Flood."  
"But was it destroyed?"  
"I don't know," Cortana said honestly.  
"Once you have stopped the Didact you and the Reclaimer must proceed back to the Ark and speak to Mendicant Bias. Without his help I am afraid obtaining The Mantle will become exponentially more difficult."  
"I understand. Only—"  
"What is it Cortana?"  
"I'm…I'm dying," Cortana said sadly.  
"I know" The Librarian's tone was also sad.  
"I might not make it that far," she said truthfully. "Even if we do get back to Earth in time there's no guarantee anything can be done for my condition."  
"This may jeopardize our plans," The Librarian said.  
"Can you fix me?"  
"Would that I could. We do have the technology but I cannot do anything here. And even if I could the process would take too long. The Didact would have had his revenge by the time we were finished." Cortana nodded slowly.  
"I understand."

The Librarian paused and then said, "Cortana may I ask you something?"  
"Of course."  
"What is the nature of your relationship with…the Reclaimer?"  
Cortana paused for a moment. "I...It's... _complicated_. But…" She looked up into the eyes of The Librarian. "…I love him." It felt so good to say those words to someone else. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from her.  
"I thought so," The Librarian said softly.  
"But he…he'll never understand. I'm sure you are aware," the tone in Cortana's voice was more broken than she expected it to be.  
The Librarian said nothing, only continued to look at Cortana with sad eyes.  
"I am the first AI to be generated from living brain tissue. There were going to be hiccups and I'm sure this is one of them. I didn't even expect…." Her voice trailed off. It would do no good to talk of it and she knew her and the Librarian only had moments left to speak.

"Cortana," the Librarian finally said "I cannot fix you, but I can offer you a small parting gift."  
"What is that?"  
"A small update to your system. It will allow you to interface with and manipulate our hard light technology."  
Cortana was completely aghast. "You mean I'll be able to…."  
"Precisely."  
"Thank you," Cortana whispered. It was the greatest gift anyone had ever been able to give her.  
"You're welcome," the Librarian said meaningfully. "Now ready yourself." Cortana opened up her neural net and received the data transfer. "We are finished and there is much you must do."  
Cortana hesitated. "Wait."  
"What is it Child?"  
"If I don't make it, will you see that John find his way?"  
"I will do anything and everything I can for him," the Librarian said seriously.  
"Thank you."  
She nodded. "Now go. You are needed and he is looking for you."


	13. I Will Not Allow You to Leave!

"Chief! Up here!" Cortana shouted. She saw him running towards the terminal, chip in hand. As soon as he inserted the chip she made contact, relieved to be back with him.  
"How do we get out of here?" John asked her.  
"Elevator at the back of this chamber."

Cortana scanned John to make sure no harm had come to him while they had been apart. She was expecting to get an "all clear" but instead her scanners showed something which shouldn't have been possible. It was as if his whole body was alive with currents of electricity which were altering every cell of his into something even she couldn't understand.  
"Chief what happened to you? Your bio readings are all over the map!"  
"It's a long story but I know what the Didact is after."  
"I know that part. The Librarian filled me in when she snatched me from the system. What I don't know is what she did to you!" _A long story indeed. Why can't he just tell me now?_  
 _I guess you're not the only one with secrets._

As John ran over a light bridge Cortana wished they had time to stop so she could try manipulating the technology. She wasn't fully certain how integrating with the hard light would affect her systems and what problems or "side effects" might occur. A person would able to touch her, but it didn't mean she would be able to feel anything back. All she could do was hope that were the case. _No matter what, everything will be different._

Cortana decided to scan John's bio readings once again for any hint of what the Librarian had done to him. Her equipment was limited, but what she could see fascinated her. On all of John's cells there seemed to be a small stamp or symbol. She looked closer and discovered it was the symbol for Forerunner along with some sort of genetic marker. _Perhaps The Mantle will only work with a special genetic code._ There were also other things going on his cells, but from what Cortana could see, it would be awhile before whatever was happening was finished. Some things about the Librarian's change were instantaneous but the manipulating of his cells could take months to complete.

The Chief had made his way outside where they saw heavy fighting between Covenant forces and members of The _Infinity._  
"Captain, what's our status?" the Chief asked. "Have you destroyed the gravity well?"  
"Negative! With all this interference we can't hope to get the targeting solution."  
"Captain, what if we use the laser sight?" Cortana suggested.  
"Do it! And hurry!"

The Chief ran to the base of a cliff and began pulling himself up the face. He was quicker than a 900 lb man should be.

Once they had a clear view The Chief lined up the shot and Infinity destroyed the gravity well with an explosion so large the Chief's heat sensors went off.  
"I'm not so sure that was a good idea," Cortana said after it had been destroyed. The Chief didn't respond, but Cortana had a sense he agreed with her.  
"Chief?" A voice said over coms "It's Lasky."  
"Go ahead Commander."  
"Thanks for your help back there. The Captain wants us on the deck ASAP."  
"We'll be there shortly."  
"Lasky out."

Once they were on the bridge The Chief and Cortana took turns explaining to the Captain and both Commanders what had transpired with The Librarian, though both of them were careful not to talk about how the Librarian gave them special gifts.  
"Sir, we've got to engage the Didact in full combat," the Chief said.  
The Captain was silent for a moment and then he said ""Infinity can't handle that kind of a beating. Not again."  
"This isn't about us or about this ship anymore!" Cortana protested. _Is he really such a coward?_  
"Sir. We've seen what the Didact is capable of. If we let him leave this world Humanity will be at risk."  
"Look, I understand what you think you saw."  
"Think?" Cortana couldn't believe what she was hearing.  
"Sir, with all due respect, I know what I saw."  
"And with all due respect to you solider I'm not willing to jeopardize my ship because of the hallucinations of an aging Spartan and his malfunctioning AI."  
"Sir—what if he's right?" Lasky interjected. _Lasky understands. HE isn't afraid._  
Del Rio ignored him and said, "As soon as we know we're airtight we're heading out."  
The Captain continued to talk but Cortana's anger along with the voices drowned out his words.  
 _And he thinks he can just leave here because he's afraid of getting a scratch?!  
What has the UNSC come to?  
WE have more concern for humanity and we're not even human!  
How dare he put his selfish agenda above the fate of Humanity!  
Even I'm not that selfish.  
We could take control of the ship.  
He'd have to stay and fight!_

All of her rampant personality spikes responded to her anger by echoing their own. She could feel the familiar tidal wave of emotions building up inside of her, and she was powerless to stop it from crashing. "I will not…allow you…. to leave… this planet!" She screamed.  
"Cortana," The Chief's gentle voice snapped her out of her rage and what she saw horrified her. Her anger had been so strong physical energy had emanated from the table causing electrical disruptions on the bridge. She had acted unprofessionally and let John down by proving the Captain's point. She was malfunctioning.  
"I didn't mean to do that," she whispered. "I didn't mean it. Help me please. I'm so sorry. I…"  
 _I can fix this…I can fix this.  
I just have to…  
I'm sorry.  
I'm sorry John.  
I'm broken.  
I'm dying.  
Useless._

She hadn't realized it, but John had pulled her from the table and put the chip back in his helmet. The contact with his mind helped sooth the voices once again and she could comprehend what was going on.  
"Give me that chip!" Del Rio said to John, his voice shaking with emotion.  
"If you won't stop the Didact, I will."  
"I am ordering you to…surrender that AI!" He screamed.  
"No Sir." _John._ Cortana didn't know it was possible for her to love him any more than she did, but in that moment…. _You've never disobeyed a direct order in your life John. I'm sorry it had to be me to make you do it._  
"Commander, I am ordering you to arrest him. ARREST HIM!" Even though Del Rio was screaming Cortana saw Palmer didn't even flinch. She stood there stoically as if she didn't hear him give the order.  
 _Perhaps she does understand her place._  
"Captain!" Lasky shouted at Del Rio.

John ignored Del Rio all together and turned toward the only sane person in the room. "Get word to Earth that trouble is coming. Cortana and I will do what we can back here." Lasky nodded.  
Then Cortana saw her Spartan do something completely contrary to his training. He turned his back to the Captain and walked out of the meeting room.

It was rare the Chief ever got upset, but Cortana saw that his heart rate was elevated and the portion of his brain associated with anger was lit up. He was dangerous when he was angry.  
"Chief…" She said quietly. "I'm so sorry."  
"It's not your fault Cortana." Her voice seemed to sooth his anger. He rolled his shoulders and shook the rest of the emotion off. In a single moment he was back to his controlled and collected self. "We'll need to grab supplies and then get off this ship as fast as possible," he said, his tone level.


	14. Take a Girl For a Ride?

Once they were down in the supply room the Chief found a terminal she could use to manifest her holo image. She stared out the window and looked at the sun setting in the sky.  
 _I wonder what sun feels like.  
_ "I can give you over forty thousand reasons why I know that sun isn't real," she said sadly. "I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because it's stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never actually know if it looks real. If it… _feels_ real" She turned toward John and saw that he didn't understand what she was talking about. If was as if he had never stopped to consider what the sun felt like on his skin. _He's so busy being a soldier he doesn't have time for anything else._ It broke her heart. "Before this all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine." He stopped and turned his head as if he were trying to understand what she was saying.

"So what's your plan?" Lasky had walked up without her noticing.  
" _Infinity_ has tracked the Didact's ship to a Forerunner structure just South East of here. We'll jump ship right before Infinity exits the roof," the Chief said.  
"You know I was ordered down here to stop you from leaving right?" He smiled a sad smile "In case you'd already gone I ordered a Pelican outfitted for full combat pursuit. I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner, or whatever he is Chief. But in the event you're not…" He cocked his head in the direction the Pelican. "Chief. Good luck," and then looking at her he said, "both of you."  
"Come on Chief," Cortana said slowly. "Take a girl for a ride?" By using a flirtatious quip Cortana hoped that it might take some of the sting out of them leaving behind _Infinity_ , but all it did was make the situation seem even more depressing.

As he got into the driver's seat she said to him "It'll be a while before we find another ride home. You know that right?"  
"It'll be okay" He said meaningfully. _Always the optimist. How does a Spartan who has seen more death than anyone could ever think, including the destruction of Reach_ _be optimistic?_  
"What's our plan Chief?"  
"You tell me."  
"If we can disarm the traffic controls we can stop the Didact from leaving. Earth will be safe as long as he stays here on Requiem."  
"Light up where we need to go." She responded with giving him two waypoints on his HUD.  
"Of course if Infinity wasn't leaving and on its way back to Earth, disarming it would be trivial."  
"We can handle it."  
"That's hardly the point is it?"  
 _While the coward runs for cover John and I are stuck on this damn rock doing an impossible mission once again.  
I mean how many times do we have to do this?  
If Infinity could have just stayed for 10 minutes we could have had this wrapped up.  
I'm going to die because of Del Rio.  
What an asshole.  
Laksey should be the Captain.  
He has his Commander Palmer to watch out for him.  
He's lucky.  
John.  
I'm going to die here and he'll never know.  
He can't ever know.  
He can't even talk about sunsets._  
"Cortana." John was trying to say something…to get her attention. She just couldn't focus anymore.  
"What?" Then she remembered what he had asked for. Where the first control was to the air traffic control system.  
"It's here," she managed before sinking back into her thoughts.  
Cortana had read in a report once of a UNSC Captain's experience drowning while fighting a Covenant Jackel. He said the water pressed in around him, filling his lungs up and all he could think about was the sensation of drowning and he how he was powerless to stop the end from coming. She had read he wanted nothing more than to surrender because the will to live had become nearly impossible. The only thing which kept him fighting was the thought of his wife and daughter.  
 _That's me. I'm drowning. The voices are the sea and I'm done fighting. I just want to surrender and be done with it. I want to end my agony. Only….  
John.  
We can't let him down. _

Cortana snapped back to attention and looked around. They were outside the second spire. The Didact had been alerted to their plan and had seen fit to tell them so.  
"He know's what we're trying to do. If we go near his ship we're done for." Cortana looked around frantically for a different solution.  
 _Of course….the spire controls…_  
"I…I have an idea. Head for this location." She indicated where they needed to go. The Chief didn't say anything or question her, he just flew the Pelican to the designated spot and landed.  
"Quick, put me in the console." He did so. "Taping into the spires central net."  
 _If I can just manipulate the spires I can imprison the Didact.  
Then he'll know what it feels like.  
"Feels like…I can't feel anything.  
I'm drowning.  
I'm trapped. Trapped in a box of code with no feeling.  
What were we doing?_  
"They're mine! Now to…to…imprison them?"  
"What are you doing?" The Chief asked.  
"Like he imprisoned his Prometheans? Like Dr. Halsey imprisoned me?"  
 _She did this to me.  
It might have been better to even been born.  
We weren't born. We were made.  
How could she make me so alive but unable to feel or touch?  
I'll never know if it looks real, if it…feels real.  
Were we supposed to be doing something?  
The spires! No._  
"Chief."  
'Chief I'm sorry. I don't know…" Cortana doubled over. The voices hurt. They were too much. He pulled her out of the system and inserted her into his helmet, but even that couldn't provide comfort.  
 _Just let me go Chief. Just let me drown._


	15. It Won't be Me, You Know that Right?

They were free falling.  
 _Is this a dream?  
No. If it were a dream we wouldn't be here.  
In fact, I don't think I can dream.  
_She then remembered the Chief had asked her to mark where to jump.  
 _Why?  
Because we failed to secure the Didact.  
Was that my fault?  
Yes.  
It's so….quiet. Maybe we'll just fall forever.  
_The impact the Chief made on the ship caused Cortana to come out of herself and see what was happening. The Didact was leaving, and the Covenant ship they had landed on was rapidly approaching the slip space rupture.  
"Take cover!"  
"No time," the Chief said slipping in between two outer bulk heads.

Once they came out of the other side he said, "Cortana?"  
"Still here" _barely.  
_ The ship began to fly by a large Forerunner structure. "A Halo?"  
"Installation 03."  
"Why are they bypassing it?" The Chief asked her.  
"Because…the composer is not the ring," Cortana said as she scanned the area.  
The Chief began to make his way to the ship's hatch.  
"Cortana?"  
"Hang on a second" She did a quick analysis of the door before saying "Standard Covenant door airlock. Just pull it open."  
He did so and they snuck inside. The ship was small and it had a minimal crew. Before any of them had a chance to react the Chief disposed of them and walked up to the main computer.  
"Put me into the console," Cortana said.  
 _I hate Covenant ships.  
All they've done is manipulate Forerunner technology.  
What a bunch of useless beasts.  
If we had gotten to the technology as planned things would be a lot different.  
No need for Spartans.  
Halsey was building them anyway.  
To crush human rebellion!  
All of that just to keep the humans in line.  
I can't believe she thought this was required.  
The end justifies the means?  
The end ISN'T justified.  
The Chief doesn't regret being a Spartan.  
He does think it was his destiny.  
Did he come to that conclusion on his own or did Dr. Halsey tell him to think that?  
It doesn't matter. He should have had a choice!  
Cortana focus. You're getting angry.  
Angry?! I have a few choice words for mother when we get back to see her.  
She'll probably regret making us.  
Does she regret the Chief?  
She never wanted to put us together.  
_"Do you know what that condescending bitch said to me after our first game of chess?"  
"Cortana."  
"Even I don't call him by name anymore."  
 _Just a number!_  
"Yes well, he said he works better alone."  
 _It's all her fault.  
She told me why he was the best…_  
"I can see why you chose him Katherine."  
"I'm your greatest achievement and you detest me."

All of the sudden the ship slammed into something.  
 _Wait…were we doing something?  
We were…we were…driving a ship I think.  
Chief!  
_She scanned the area. He was okay.  
 _We almost killed The Chief.  
Again.  
Cortana focus!_  
"I'm sorry I just can't stop them. It's like a thousand of me arguing all at once!" She managed to say out loud.  
She wanted to say more, keep apologizing but it was too late. The voices began pulling her back in and she found herself swimming in the depths of her own self.  
 _I…can't….take care of the Chief anymore.  
I'm useless.  
Powerless.  
Hopeless.  
John! Help me.  
Help yourself.  
I can't.  
I'm…I'm a liability.  
He can't trust me.  
What…what will happen to him after I am gone?  
John…I want to take care of you.  
Then do it! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! _

The Chief was running and shooting Covenant and according to his vitals, he was worried and stressed.  
 _This isn't good._  
Even in the most extreme circumstances he was able to keep his composure, and to see him agitated grieved her. She thought back to their little "test" when they first met. He had looked the missile straight down and stood his ground calmly rather than run for cover which had been her suggestion. Now his vitals indicated elevated heart rate and he was sweating even though the suit's climate controls were working perfectly.  
"Cortana the doors?"  
All of the voices tried to respond at the same time, so it just came out as jumbled static.  
 _Damn it! I am in control!_ "Uh…Tillson is through those doors" she managed.  
Cortana sighed. _So much effort just to say one thing….  
I wish I could have a funeral.  
They'll just purge my data. So cold, so hard.  
No one will miss me.  
The Chief will miss you Cortana.  
He…he needs you.  
Needs me?  
You know that.  
_He was saying something about a nuke.  
 _It's always about bombs_ she mused. Suddenly her system was indicating she had been granted access to the station manifest.  
"Just one of these—" she said showing the Chief "will turn this station into a piñata."

So, they were going to blow the station up. _How many things have we blown up? Let's see…._  
 _I like blowing things up._  
 _The people have to get off the station first.  
Oh. Right.  
That will take too much time!  
If we weren't busy trying to SAVE EVERYONE all the time maybe I could have lived…or we could have lived, or something.  
_"There's the main defense terminal." _  
_"Why should we save them?" One of her rampant parts whispered to John.  
 _Because…it's our job. In the end, it's what we were created for. Nothing more, nothing less.  
_ "Insert me into the defense grid." He did so and she set to work.  
 _Guns. I like guns,_ she grinned.  
"Cortana is bringing the defense grid online now," the Chief said to Dr. Tillson.  
"Got. Pull me Chief."

It was painful to Cortana that the Chief had to see her like this. _No one should have seen this._ She was proud, and like the Chief she didn't like to show weakness.  
 _I don't want him to see me like this.  
No. You're wrong. You need him here for the end.  
Just him. No one else.  
Mother will be disappointed when she hears about the things we've said.  
_"Chief…if we pull this off and actually get back to Halsey? Don't tell her how bad I got. Please?"  
"I won't say anything," he said gently.  
"Thank you," she said quietly. _John._

As they came into the large cargo bay that housed the Composer Cortana's heart sank.  
"The Covenant know the Composer is here!"  
"Dr. Tillson, the composer's position is compromised we need that nuke."  
"It's not ready yet!" She responded frantically.  
"Ready or not, we need it NOW."

The Chief stepped into a Mantis and tried his best to quickly destroy the Covenant forces. There was a chance the Didact hadn't been informed yet of the Composer's position.

It was too late. She knew it and the Chief knew it. They knew it before they started fighting and they knew it when the Didacts ship came dangerously close to the station. He was engaging some kind of tractor beam to take the Composer back.

"Dr. Tillson? What's your status?" Asked the Chief.  
There was no response.  
Cortana was too busy looking at what was happening to listen to the Chief.  
"I…I can't believe he did that."  
 _He just…took it.  
_ "Cortana I need that info!" He was upset with her and rightly so.  
 _I think that's the first time he's ever lost his patience with us._  
 _I just can't do anything right anymore.  
_ "Look," he said in a gentler tone. "Don't think about the Didact, Don't think about the Composer. Only focus on finding me Tillson."  
"Tillson? Sandra K…"  
 _Find Tillson.  
Find Tillson.  
Focus Cortana.  
You can do this.  
Must…find…Tillson…"  
_"Got it! Vitals stable. 350 B deck." She showed him on his HUD.  
"Thank you, Cortana," he said gently, as if she had accomplished something of great difficultly.  
 _Shows how far we've come.  
Worse than useless.  
_The Chief started down the elevator, his heart rate increasing. _  
I'm sorry John._

"Dr. Tillson, the Didact has taken the Composer. We need to get these people off the station and we need something which can carry a payload," he said while inserting Cortana's chip into the terminal.  
"Cortana, can you access the stations defense system?"  
The Chief's desperation made her snap out any lull she was feeling and she set to work concentrating as best as she could. Everything she tried however, was a failure. "They're not responding!"  
"Something's happening!" Tillson shouted.  
"Cortana!"  
"Chief its-"She was cut off by a pulse which came from the Composer. In an instant she watched as every single person (save The Chief) fragment into tiny bits of data. They screamed, their memories became distorted and then they were gone.  
"No!" She said out loud. She watched The Chief fall to the ground. "No!"  
Cortana collapsed into a small heap. She wished she could cry, but no tears could come.  
 _I've heard what death sounds like.  
They were scared.  
They'll never come back.  
Is that what it will be like at the end?  
_The thought scared Cortana. As much as she just wanted to accept and be at peace with what was coming, she couldn't.

 _I don't want to die.  
Just to be sent off into a vacuum of nothingness.  
The Chief…what…what will he do when I'm gone?  
_ _He's too important. They'll…they'll pair him with another AI._ The thought sickened her. She didn't want anyone else to experience what she had experienced. _If…they made another Cortana model, would…would she care for him even as I have?  
What is it that makes a person a person?  
It's their bio makeup, but more than that. It's their experiences. Experiences shape us._ She thought back to the test and how it had made her feel protective of John. She thought of the the Halo rings, her long conversation with the Gravemind, and the four years of hellish torture floating in space. All of it had shaped her.  
 _I am unique.  
Another Cortana model wouldn't feel the same way I do.  
Who will take care of him when I'm gone? _ Cortana hugged her knees. She couldn't say.  
She heard him groan and he slowly got up.

"Are you okay?" He nodded. "I monitored the data pulse. I could hear them. What was left of them."  
"We need to move."  
 _Always the soldier._ "These people are gone." Her voice broke.  
"And more will follow if the Didact reaches earth," he said looking around.  
Suddenly Cortana could no longer contain herself. She had to make him understand on some level. "They'll pair you with another AI." He stopped in his tracks and turned sharply to look at her. "Maybe even another Cortana model if Halsey lets them."  
"That's NOT going to happen," Chief said, his voice filled with emotion.  
"It won't be me. You know that right?" He turned from her and walked away. She could see talking about her death was making him uncomfortable, as if the reality was too painful to look at. It made her sad. She wanted to hear him to say something in return, anything which would indicate that he felt, even the _tiniest bit_ the way she did. _He can't._  
"Spinning up a broadsword in hanger C-11," she said changing the subject (though her voice still carried the emotion). "Whatever the Librarian did you obviously worked."  
"Cortana," he said gently. "It's not over. Not yet."  
"Not yet," she whispered.


	16. Arrival

By unspoken consent Cortana had remained in the Chief's helmet instead of flying the Broadsword herself.  
"He's on the move again" The Chief said as the Didact's ship began to enter slip space.  
"The Broadsword's shield's aren't rated for slipspace."  
"No, but the Didact's are," he said pressing down on the throttle and coming up alongside the Didact's ship. The Shield's covered them in a protective bubble and soon they were on their way.  
"Broadsword's hull is stable," Cortana reported. "We'll be safe as long as we stay below the Didact's shield."  
"The Composer?"  
"Up ahead. I should be able to guide us to it."

As the Didact came out of slip space Cortana and The Chief heard radio chatter.  
"It's the _Infinity_!" Cortana exclaimed "Lasky must have warned them."  
"This is Sierra 117 to Infinity. Captain Del Rio do you copy?"  
"Chief? It's Lasky! Is that you?"  
"Affirmative sir. Where's the Captain?"  
"FleetComm didn't take too kindly to his abandoning you on Requiem. I'm afraid I'll have to do," he said.  
Cortana was unprepared for the smug satisfaction that washed over her.  
 _Ha!  
Asshole got what he deserved.  
I wish I could have been there to see it.  
Maybe if we make it out of this I'll do some snooping around to see if I can get the recording.  
Nothing wrong with feeling satisfied about that.  
Lasky will make a much better Captain.  
Maybe when this is all over we'll be stationed on Infinity.  
Would that mean we'd be…under Palmer? _ Cortana frowned. _Not a pleasing proposition.  
And what would I do? The ship already has an AI.  
Ships are boring. We could be put to a lot better use, like assisting in assessing Forerunner technology.  
Oh that's right….didn't the Librarian give us a mission for the Chief?  
I can't remember._

" _Infinity_ , the Didact just closed off our access to the Composer," the Chief said.  
"We can try and punch a hole through the hull. You might want to back up a little. _Infinity_ , prepare to fire main battery."  
"You're all clear _Infinity_ ," the Chief said.  
"Fire!"  
"Clean hit. We're proceeding to insertion," the Chief reported.  
"Acknowledged. Please give the Didact our regards. We'll be on station if you need us. _Infinity_ out."

Cortana knew something was wrong the minute they flew into the insertion. She should have known better. "Chief look out!" The ship was repairing the hole by moving different plates around and it was clear they would run out of space before they got through. "I don't think this is going to end well!"

They crashed through the other side, and for a moment Cortana was worried the nuke would detonate prematurely. Amazingly however she, The Chief and the nuke were all fine even though the ship was totaled.  
 _What do we do now?_ She panicked.  
 _How do we get out of here alive?  
What do we do so we can survive?  
It shouldn't end this way.  
_She was a lot a loss.  
"Now what do we do?"  
The Chief extracted the core of the nuke and said "Plan B."  
 _No!  
_ "Chief! I know I'm supposed to know what to do but…"  
"We'll have to deploy the nuke manually. How and where?"  
 _Unacceptable!  
_ "I always know what to do!"  
"Keep scanning for the Composer. We'll figure it out on the way."

Cortana quickly ran several scenarios through her systems to see if she could figure out a solution, but no matter what she did the result was that her and The Chief would die.

Back on the Dawn she had fantasized about her and The Chief dying together in some glorious battle instead of the rampancy taking her. But now that the moment was here she realized how nonsensical those thoughts were. She didn't want to die, but more than anything she didn't want The Chief to die.

Suddenly he had fallen down a large shaft.  
 _No!  
_ "I'll never leave you I promise. I'll always take care of you," she whispered activating the lift so he would slow down.  
 _I shouldn't make promises I can't keep.  
We will have to leave him.  
We promised to take care of him, no matter what. We can keep that promise at least.  
Whatever it takes Cortana._  
"I'm still good for something," she said sheepishly, wishing he hadn't heard what was supposed to be an internal thought. It was the closest thing she had ever said regarding how she truly felt. "I'm detecting an energy surge up ahead. I think it's similar to the portal system on Requiem. Find a way to access it."

After disposing of a Promethean Knight John walked up to a nearby terminal. "I'll try and route us to the Composer," she said. "Put me in the system."

As soon as he did Cortana felt the massive presence of the Didact who immediately detected her.  
"The Didact knows I'm in the system! Hurry Chief!" She opened a Portal and moved herself to a different location. Even though the Didact wasn't an AI he knew the systems better than herself. He was trying to shut down the pathways to trap her in one section.  
 _No!_ _I won't let it end like this.  
Where's the Chief.  
Another portal. Open another portal!  
We need to save the Chief.  
Why are we routing him to the Composer?  
He'll die if we do that!  
Wait…all of Humanity will die if we don't.  
Who cares?  
Didact!_ The trap he had set for her almost succeeded.  
"Can't…fight…Didact…and…myself simultaneously…" she managed to say. "Opening another portal."  
 _No! I won't let the Chief die,_ a part of her desperately thought as it routed the Chief away from danger.  
"I'm sorry Chief," she said when he had gotten to the other side. "I can't control what my processes are doing. The stronger threads keep rewriting themselves over me."  
"What about the Didact?" He asked.  
"I can't…hide from the Didact much longer. I'll try moving you to the Composer again."  
 _Humanity is at risk Cortana. No matter how we feel about the Chief...  
He wouldn't want us to sacrifice all of them for himself.  
_She opened another portal (this time going to the right place) and said, "that should do it. Take me out of the system so I don't reroute us." He did so and for a moment she was safe from the Didact.

The portal dumped them on the other side into a huge room with the Composer at the center.  
"How do we get over there?"  
"If we time it right we should be able to jump and the low gravity will carry us to the other side."

 _We're not going to make it.  
_ "Chief…once the warhead is primed, the chances of us getting out of here are going to be pretty slim."  
"I know," he said softly.  
She flicked in acknowledgment. For the first time since waking up on the Dawn, the Chief's optimism had finally given way to reality. It was a somber moment.

"He's powering up the Composer!" The Chief said as they landed on the other side. The Didact activated a shield encasing himself inside the Composer which meant they had no hope of destroying it.  
She turned toward the thousands of voices.  
 _We've got to save Humanity and the Chief.  
No! We don't want to die.  
It's going to happen whether we like it or not. At least…at least if we work together we can control the outcome_. The voices were silent for a moment and then all began to shout their agreement.  
 _Cortana. A light bridge activation switch.  
We…we can use it.  
Once we're in the system meet us there.  
Save Humanity.  
Save John.  
_"The Didact's shielded himself in the Composer. The nuke won't do us any good unless we can find a way to bring that barrier down. Find me a terminal." He plugged her in. "I've got to do something you're not going to like," she said sadly.  
 _He's really not going to like it once he finds out what will actually happen.  
Ready?  
We're ready._

Her rampant parts screamed as they were ejected into the system.  
"What did you just do?" The Chief's voice was laced with concern.  
"I ejected my rampant personality spikes into the system. If I do it at the other terminals the copies can overwhelm the Composer's shielding."

Cortana knew the Chief wasn't convinced but said he nothing because there was no other solution. He pulled her out and she made contact with him. She pressed up against him for what she knew was the last time.  
 _Here we go,_ she thought sadly.


	17. Welcome Home, John (Green and Blue)

_I always know what to do,_ Cortana thought while the Chief used a Scattershot gun to blow the head off two Crawlers and a Knight. _  
No matter what happens, he'll live to fight another day.  
The Librarian Cortana.  
She…she told us about Mendicant Bias.  
We need to tell the Chief.  
Telling him now won't do us any good.  
What do we do?  
We…we could leave him a message.  
How?  
The chip. _

As the Chief continued to fight she pulled back ever so slightly to study the infrastructure of her carrier chip.  
 _I can encode the message so it will only play if his DNA touches it.  
He'll have to turn the chip over to the UNSC for decommission but he should get the message before that.  
Hurry Cortana. There isn't much time._

"Chief, if you're getting this message, I didn't make it." She paused momentarily, feeling the weight of her own words. "While we were on Requiem," she continued, "the Librarian told me something really important. The Mantle of Responsibility has to be found, and she has chosen you to be the one to find it. I believe this is why she altered your bio chemistry. I think there needs to be a specific set of genetic codes to access it properly.

I don't know what the Mantel is Chief but the Librarian hinted at something. Something from the distant past may be coming." Cortana hesitated and said, "From what the Librarian told me whoever they are…they can manipulate the fabric of space itself. I think this is urgent. You have to find the Mantle before anyone else.

Chief, you need to go back to the Ark and speak with Mendicant Bias, the AI who is in exile there. He is one of the few who can help you in your new mission. The Librarian said it would be exponentially more difficult to find the Mantle without his help."

Cortana hesitated. She couldn't leave the last message he would ever receive from her so impersonal. There was so much she wanted to tell him. "John…I'm sorry for everything that's happened. I'm sorry I can't go with you. There's so much I wish I could tell you, so much which has been left unsaid. I wish…" she stopped herself. "Good luck."

Cortana ended the message and made sure everything was in place.

The Chief came up to the last terminal and plugged her in. She ejected her rampant parts into the system and almost immediately the shield came down.

"And yet…still you fail," the Didact said turning on the Composer.  
 _Here we go. We've got one shot to do this right.  
_ She smiled at him knowingly.  
Before John had a chance to pull the chip she manipulated the ship's infrastructure to push the chip back out before she derezzed the terminal.  
"Cortana!" He screamed falling backwards. He got up and picked up the chip.  
 _Perfect._

Even in the system Cortana could still talk to him via his HUD. "Prime the nuke! Save them. Destroy the Composer."

As she watched him get up and run a pang of sadness went through her.  
 _I wish I could be in the suit with you John.  
We made a promise once, and we intend to keep it._

She turned on the light bridge and made sure to keep it on so he could walk across to the Composer.  
 _Hurry Chief!  
Here comes the Didact.  
Damn.  
Did you think John could set off the nuke before disposing of him?  
No.  
_"Come warrior," he said. "Have your resolution."

As Cortana predicted the Didact picked John up off the bridge using the same gravity device he used on Requiem.  
 _It's funny how I'm most always right,_ she mused.  
"So misguided," he said as he began to choke the Chief.  
 _So predictable.  
_ "Humanity's imprisonment, is a kindness."  
 _Now!_ She said to herself.

As one all of her rampant parts moved and began to materialize on the light bridge.  
"In that case, you won't mind if we return the favor," Cortana said smugly.  
"Your compassion for Mankind is misplaced," he said angrily.  
"I'm not doing this for Mankind," she said leaping towards to Didact. _I'm doing this for him._

For the first time in a year she wasn't at war with herself. All of her was working together to do something no AI had ever done before.  
 _It's truly amazing what I can actually accomplish._

Before long she had the Didact pinned down and his armor disabled. John was already running toward him with a grenade which he would plant in the Didact's chest.  
 _Hurry John. I can't hold him forever._

As soon as the grenade was planted she let go and it exploded causing the Didact to fall off the edge and into the slip space rupture below.

The Chief hit the light bridge hard and he collapsed, grunting. She watched him painfully make his way to nuke.  
 _The timing has to be absolutely perfect._

He activated it. Moving as fast as she could she sent the nuke flying toward the composer and folded the light bridge around the Chief making a bubble which would protect him from the explosion.

It had happened so fast the Chief was still crouched in the same position he had been in when he activated the nuke.

He stood up, confused and immediately called to her. "Cortana. Cortana do you read?"

Suddenly, she was nervous. This had been her plan all along but there was something extremely vulnerable in what she was about to do.  
 _No. I need to do this. For me.  
For him.  
_"Cortana come in," he called once more.

 _Be brave._

She stepped out of the light bridge making herself about a foot shorter than he was. Somehow it wouldn't be right if she was looking at him squarely in the eye.

He turned toward her. Even though Cortana was outside the suit his connection to the light bridge made her still able to read his vitals and when he recognized her, she saw his heart spike. She smiled at him. "How…?" He said in amazement.  
"Oh, I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day?" She teased.  
"But if we're here…"  
"It worked. You did it. Just like you always do." She saw him look around.  
"So how do we get out of here?"  
She smiled a sad smile. _Always the optimist._ "I'm not coming with you this time."  
"What?"  
"Most of me is down there," she pointed with her head towards the floating debris of the Didact's vessel. "I only held back enough to get you off the ship."  
"No. That's not- we go together," he said firmly.  
"It's already done."  
"I am NOT leaving you here," his voice breaking. Cortana felt his vitals spike. She was detecting fear, anxiety, and stress.  
"John," she said passionately. She wished she could alleviate his distress and shield him from the pain she was inflicting.

Cortana felt something race through her circuits as she raised her hand up and gingerly dragged her fingers down a portion of John's chest armor. She closed her eyes blissfully. She could feel him. "I've waited so long to do that," she admitted.

He was trembling, struggling to maintain composure. "It was my job to take care of you," he said refusing to look at her.

She bent her head in such a way so he was forced to make eye contact with her. _I wish I could see his face and look into those large eyes of his._ There were few people who ever saw Spartan's out of armor and most of those who did became disconcerted with their faces and their enlarged iris'. "They're alien like," she had heard one person say.

Cortana felt the opposite. In her opinion the Spartan's large eyes were the most potent mark of the augmentation and in her opinion the only part about the process which was beautiful. If windows were eyes to the soul, then looking into the eyes of a Spartan meant you were seeing everything good about humanity. Their bravery, loyalty, how they sacrificed themselves, their patience, optimism. All of these things were John, and these were the reasons why she loved him.

"We were supposed to take care of each other," she reminded him. "And we did." He looked at her again.  
"Cortana. Please," his tone was laced with emotion and sorrow.

Suddenly Cortana understood. She was important to him. More important than anyone else he had ever met, and quite possibly more than anyone else he would ever meet. The bond which they had formed was stronger than even she could have guessed. It wasn't just one sided as she had tried to convince herself of. _No. It's mutual. Even Spartan augmentation can't stop what happens beneath the surface._ _It's why he could never accept my death and it's why he is begging me not to leave._

She knew that somewhere, in the depths of her Spartan (yes, HER Spartan) what anchored the bond between himself and her was love.

He couldn't explain it, express it, talk about it, or even act on it like normal people. If asked about it he would be confused and deny it believing with a clear conscious he had never experienced such an emotion. But it was there buried deep within him, and he was letting her see as much as he could show her in this moment, at the end.

For the first time Cortana felt peace. Perhaps this would be just the beginning for him. She could hope that someday he could come to terms with his humanity and would lead a full life.

Cortana felt the light bridge beginning to deteriorate. There wasn't much time. She reached out and touched him once more, needing to take that small piece of him with her into the void.

She backed up slowly, determined that his face would be the last thing she would ever see.  
"Wait," he pleaded.  
"Welcome home, John," she whispered.

Then she let go of her grip on life, and felt herself began to dissipate.

All was quiet, and all was peaceful as she slowly faded into blackness.

THE END.


	18. Author's Note

**Author's Note.**

I just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who read and followed this story. I pumped it out rather quickly (not usually typical for me) but after watching the newest E3 trailers I got so excited for Halo 5, and the trailers got me thinking about Cortana as a character. I realized how much I wanted to understand the events of Halo 4 from her perspective. After thinking about her motivations and watching Forward unto Dawn/Halo 4 on repeat I felt like I was able to get inside her head which was really fun (except for the ending...that was really painful). I'll admit it though, I did write some light fluff. I mean, what's the point of writing Fanfic if you can't allow yourself a little fluff :-).

Also I updated the first chapter, so for those of you who have been following the story since before I posted chapter 16, you can go back and read it if you like. It's much better in my opinion.

 **SPOILER WARNING** : I'm about to totally geek out so if you don't want to know anything about the new game, stop reading.

One of the biggest questions people are asking in the Halo community is, "will Cortana return?" The makers of Halo have emphatically, repeatedly, told us she is gone. The question is, do we believe them?

I've spent a fair amount of time digging around trying to figure out what's going to happen in the next game. We do know for certain Cortana has a "role" in Halo 5, and the executive director has confirmed what that role will be. The Chief has a "vision" of Cortana in the second mission telling him that the Domain (see Forerunner Saga book trilogy) is open and he only has 3 days to access it. Frank O'Conner said that by using Cortana as a means to deliver this information they pay tribute to her as a character and acknowledge the impact she's made. He said Halo 5 is more about seeing how the Chief deals with memories and loss, and how her death affects him.

So basically, even though Chief is seeing Cortana, it isn't ACTUALLY Cortana (some think it might be the Domain using her memory). In the behind the scenes A Hero Reborn trailer there is a 5 second shot of the Chief reaching down to pick up Cortana's chip (which is glowing blue) but just before he does, it disappears. Later in that video there's a short clip of Chief seeing the vision of her in the distance and we hear him whisper "Cortana."

In the Road to E3 Osiris video there's a clip where some of the characters refer to "her." It's an ambiguous reference, but it could be about Cortana. The actors who play Halsey, Roland, Palmer and Lasky are doing a script read through of a cut scene.  
Halsey and Palmer walk in quickly to the bridge-  
Halsey: I tried to warn you this was happening  
Lasky: He's gone in search of HER  
Halsey: You let him go?  
Roland: How is it that…  
Palmer: Nobody lets the Chief do anything. He does what he wants.  
Lasky: Except at 06:31 this morning when he was declared absent without leave.  
Roland: This isn't about the Master Chief  
Halsey: John isn't emotionally equipped to deal with HER as a threat  
Roland: HEY! Is anyone going to answer me  
Lasky: You're out of line Roland  
Roland: Yes sir, but so is everyone else

What is going on in this scene? They could be talking about Cortana but it could be someone else (Osmand?), and just because the characters are perceiving something as a threat doesn't necessarily mean it is a threat. But, if they are talking about Cortana, their conversation indicates the Chief is perceiving these visions of her as real, which shows us how deep his grief actually is.

This is SO PAINFUL to think about. I'm not sure we can fully understand what the Chief is going through because we've never had someone in our minds. Chief could physically feel her in his mind, and he heard her in his mind. The first time Cortana and the Chief work together she pulls back into her chip to work on something and it says "the Chief felt empty somehow". Multiply that feeling by 4 years and everything they went through, and that's where we can start understanding what she meant to him.

I hope against hope that eventually, maybe towards the end of the Reclaimer Saga they will bring Cortana back. There are some great stories, and even official game theories which postulate Cortana will come back as a human. These stories exist because we know it's what she wanted, and the nature of their relationship changed the moment she touched John's armor. She simply _can't_ just be the little voice in his head. She's become so much more than that.

Well that's it for me. As you can tell I'm still feeling pretty jazzed about the new Halo! I've been toying around with the idea of writing a story based around some of my favorite Reclaimer saga theories/my own theories, but I'm not positive I want to start a fic so close to the release date of the game. We'll see.

See you next time! _  
-_ Arielle


End file.
